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GOD'S  WAY  OF  PEACE: 


%  §00k  fox  i\t  %nnaw. 


BY 

HORATIUS  BONAR,  D.D. 


'To  him  that  worketh  not,  but  belleveth."— Rom.  iv.  2, 


RICHMOND : 
PRESBYTERIAN  COMMITTEE  OF   PUBLICATION. 


PEEFACE. 

There  seem  to  be  many,  in  our  day,  who 

are  seeking  God.     Yet  they  appear  to  be 

but  "feeling  after  him  in  order  to  find 

him,"  as  if  he  were  either  a  distant  or  an 

"unknown  God."     They  forget  that ." he 

is  NOT  FAR  from  every  one  of  us,"  (Acts 

xvii.  27) ;  for  "  in  him  we  live,  and  move, 

and  have  our  being." 

To  know  that  He  is  not  far  ;  that  he  has 

come  down  ;  that  he  has  come  nigh ;  this 

is  the  "  beginning  of  the  gospel."     It  gives 

direct  denial  to  the  vain  thoughts  of  those 

who  think  that  they  must  bring  Him  nigh 

by  their  prayers  and  devout  performances. 

He  has  shewn  himself  to  us,  that  we  may 

a2 


VI  PREFACE. 

know  him,  and  in  knowing  him  find  the 
life  of  our  souls. 

With  some,  who  name  the  name  of  Christ, 
religion  is  a  very  unfinished  thing.  It  is 
by  no  means  satisfactory  either  to  the  man 
himself,  or  to  the  onlookers.  There  is 
much  awanting.  The  man  is  anxious  and 
earnest,  but  if  he  has  not  "peace  with 
God,"  he  has  not  what  God  calls  "  religion." 

Acceptance  with  God  lies  at  the  founda- 
tion of  all  religion ;  for  there  must  be  an 
accepted  worshipper,  before  there  can  be 
acceptable  worship.  Religion  is  with  many 
merely  the  means  of  averting  God's  dis- 
pleasure, and  securing  his  favour.-  It  is 
often,  irksome,  but  they  do  not  feel  easy  in 
neglecting  it ;  and  they  hope  that  by  it 
they  will  obtain  forgiveness  before  they 
die. 

This,  however,  is  the  inversion  of  God's 
order,  and  is  in  reality  the  worship  of  an 


PREFACE.  YU. 

unknoivn  God.  It  terminates  in  forgive- 
ness  ;  whe?3as  God's  religion  begins  with 
it.  All  fidse  religions,  though  outwardly 
differing  very  widely,  are  made  up  of  ear- 
nest efforts  to  secure  for  the  religionist  the 
divine  favour  now,  and  eternal  life  at  last. 
The  one  true  religion  is  seen  in  the  holy 
life  of  those  who,  having  found  for  them- 
selves forgiveness  and  favour,  in  believing 
the  the  record  which  God  has  given  of  his  Son, 
are  walking  with  him  from  day  to  day,  in 
the  calm  but  sure  consciousness  of  being 
entirely  accepted,  and  working  for  him 
with  the  happy  earnestness  of  those  whose 
reward  is  his  constant  smile  of  love ;  who 
having  been  much  forgiven,  love  much, 
and  shew  forth,  by  daily  sacrifice  and  ser- 
vice, how  much  they  feel  themselves  debtors 
to  a  redeeming  God,  debtors  to  his  Church, 
and  debtors  to  the  world  in  which  they  live. 
(Bom.  i.  14.) 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

But  if  this  be  true  religion,  how  much  is 
there  of  the  false  ? 

It  is  not  good  that  men  should  be  all 
their  life  seeking  God,  and  never  finding 
him ;  that  they  should  be  ever  learning,  and 
never  able  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth.  It  is  not  good  to  be  always 
doubting ;  and,  when  challenged,  to  make 
the  untrue  excuse  that  they  are  only 
doubting  themselves,  not  God;  that  they 
are  only  dissatisfied  with  their  own  faith, 
but  not  with  its  glorious  object.  It  is  not 
good  to  believe  in  our  own  faith,  still  less 
in  our  own  doubts,  which  some  seem  to  do, 
making  the  best  doubter  to  be  the  best  be- 
liever ;  as  if  it  were  the  gold  of  the  cup. 
not  the  living  water  which  it  contains,  that 
was  to  quench  our  thirst ;  and  as  if  it  were 
unlawful  to  take  that  precious  water  from 
a  poor  earthen  vessel,  such  as  our  imperfect 
faith  must  ever  be.    Ah,  in  this  momentous 


PREFACE.  UL 


thing,  surely  it  is  with  the  water  and  not 
with  the  vessel  that  the  thirsty  soul  has  to 
do  ?  What  matters  it  though  the  vessel 
be  one  of  skin,  or  earthenware,  —  nay, 
though  it  be  but  "  a  sherd  to  take  up  water 
from  the  pit,"  (Isa.  xxx.  14).  It  is  not  the 
quality  of  the  vessel,  but  the  quality  of  the 
water,  that  the  thirsty  soul  thinks  of ;  and 
he,  whose  pride  will  not  allow  him  to  drink 
out  of  a  soiled  and  broken  pitcher,  must  die 
of  thirst.  So  he  who  puts  away  the  sure 
reconciliation  of  the  cross,  because  .of  an 
imperfect  faith,  must  die  the  death.  He 
who  says,  "  I  believe  the  right  thing,  but  I 
don't  believe  it  in  the  right  way,  and  there- 
fore I  can't  have  peace  ;"  is  the  man  whose 
pride  is  such,  that  he  is  determined  not  to 
quench  his  thirst  save  out  of  a  cup  of  gold. 
Some  have  tried  to  give  directions  to  sin- 
ners "  how  to  get  converted,"  multiplying 
words  without  wisdom,  leading  the  sinner 


PREFACE. 


away  from  the  cross  by  setting  him  upon 
doing,  not  upon  believing.  Our  business 
is  not  to  give  any  such  directions,  but,  as 
the  apostles  did,  to  preach  Christ  crucified, 
a  present  Saviour  and  a  present  salvation. 
Then  it  is  that  sinners  are  converted,  as  the 
Lord  himself  said,  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me,"  (John  xii.  32). 

In  the  following  chapters  there  are  some 
things  which  may  appear  repetitions.  But 
this  could  not  easily  be  avoided,  as  there 
were  certain  truths  as  well  as  certain 
errors  that  necessarily  came  up  at  different 
points  and  under  different  aspects.  I  need 
not  apologise  for  these,  as  they  were,  in  a 
great  measure,  unavoidable.  They  take 
up  very  little  space,  and  I  do  not  think 
they  will  seem  at  all  superfluous  to  any  one 
who  reads  for  profit  and  not  for  criticism. 

Kelso,  December  1861. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

BOD'S  TESTIMONY  CONCERNING  MAN,  .  .  1 

CHAPTER  II. 
man's  own  character  no  ground  of'  peace,  9 

CHAPTER  III. 
god's  character  our  resting-place,   .        .        26 

CHAPTER  IV. 
righteous  grace, 41 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  blood  of  sprinkling,     ....        61 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  PERSON  AND  WORK  OF  THE  SUBSTITUTE,     .  64 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

Page 

CHAPTEK  VIT. 

THE  WOKD  OF  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL,         73 

CHAPTEK  VIII. 

BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED,  ....  99 

CHAPTER  IX. 

BELIEVE  JUST  NOW,  .  .  .  .  116 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE,    .  .  132 

CHAPTER  XI. 

INSENSIBILITY, 153 

CHAPTER  XII. 

JESTJS  ONLY, .      168 


GOD'S.  WAT  OF  PEACE, 


CHAPTER  I. 


GOD  S  TESTIMONY  CONCERNING  MAN. 


Gen.  vi.  5-12. 

Eccl.  vii.  29. 

Rom.  iii.  9-19 

Job  xv.  14-16. 

Isa.  liii.  6. 

Eph.  ii,  1-3. 

Psa.  xiv.  1-3. 

John  xv.  18-24. 

Titus  iii.  3. 

Psa.li.4,5. 

Rom.  i.  21-32. 

1  John  v.  19. 

God  knows  us.  He  knows  what  we  are  ; 
he  knows  also  what  he  meant  us  to  be ; 
and  upon  the  difference  between  these  two 
states  he  founds  his  testimony  concerning' 
us. 

He  is  too  loving  to  say  anything  need- 
lessly severe  ;  too  true  to  say  anything  un- 
true ;  nor  can  he  have  any  motive  to  mis- 

A 


&  GOD  S  TESTIMONY. 

represent  us ;  for  he  loves  to  tell  of  the  good, 
not  of  the  evil,  that  may  be  found  in  any 
of  the  works  of  his  hands.  He  declared 
them  "  good,"  "  very  good,"  at. first ;  and  if 
he  does  not  do  so  now,  it  is  not  because  he 
would  not,  but  because  he  cannot ;  for  "  all 
flesh  has  corrupted  its  way  upon  the  earth," 
(Gen.  vi.  12). 

God's  testimony  concerning  man  is,  that 
he  is  a  sinner.  He  bears  -witness  against 
him,  not  for  him,  and  testifies  that  "  there 
is  none  righteous,  no,  not  one  ;"  that  there 
is  "  none  that  doeth  good  ;"  none  "  that 
understandeth ;"  none  that  even  seeheth 
after  God,  and  still  more  none  that  loveth 
him.  (Psa.  xiv.  1-3;  Rom.  iii.  10-12.) 
God  speaks  of  man  kindly,  but  severely ; 
as  one  yearning  over  a  lost  child,  yet  as  one 
who  will  make  no  terms  with  sin,  and  will 
"  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty."  He  de- 
clares man  to  be  a  lost  one,  a  stray  one,  a 
rebel,  nay  a  "  hater  of  God,"  (Rom.  i.  30)  ; 
not  a  sinner  occasionally,   but  a   sinner 

m 
m 


CONCERNING  MAN.  3 

always ;  not  a  sinner  in  part,  with  many 
good  tilings  about  him  ;  but  wholly  a  sin- 
ner, with  no  compensating  goodness  ;  evil 
in  heart  as  well  as  life,  "  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins,"  (Eph.  ii.  1) ;  an  evil  doer,  and 
therefore  under  condemnation ;  an  enemy 
of  God,  and  therefore  "  under  wrath ;"  a 
breaker  of  the  righteous  law,  and  therefore 
under  "  the  curse  of  the  law,"  (Gal.  iii.  10). 
Man  has  fallen  !  Not  this  man  or  that 
man,  but  the  whole  race.  In  Adam  all 
have  sinned ;  in  Adam  all  have  died.  It 
is  not  that  a  few  leaves  have  faded  or  been 
shaken  down,  but  the  tree  has  become  cor- 
rupt, root  and  branch.  The  "  flesh,"  or  "  old 
man" — that  is,  each  man  as  he  is  born  into 
the  world,  a  son  of  man,  a  fragment  of 
humanity,  a  unit  in  Adam's  fallen  body, — 
is  "  corrupt."  He  not  merely  brings  forth 
sin,  but  he  carries  it  about  with  him,  as  his 
second  self ;  nay,  he  is  a  "  body"  or  mass  of 
sin  (Horn.  vi.  6),  a  "  body  of  death"  (Rom. 
vii.  24),  subject  not  to  the  law  of  God,  but 


4  god's  testimony 

to  "the  law  of.  sin,"  (Rom.  vii.  23).  The 
Jew,  educated  tinder  the  most  perfect  of 
laws,  and  in  the  most  favourable  circum- 
stances, was  the  best  type  of  humanity, — 
of  civilised,  polished,  educated  humanity ; 
the  best  specimen  of  the  first  Adam's  sons  ; 
yet  God's  testimony  concerning  him  is  that 
he  is  "  under  sin,"  that  he  has  gone  astray, 
and  that  he  has  "  come  short  of  the  glory 
of  God." 

The  outer  life  of  a  man  is  not  the  man, 
just  as  the  paint  on  a  piece  of  timber  is 
not  the  timber,  and  as  the  green  moss  upon 
the  hard  rock  is  not  the  rock  itself.  The 
picture  of  a  man  is  not  the  man  ;  it  is  but 
a  skilful  arrangement  of  colours  which  look 
like  the  man.  So  it  is  the  bearing  of  the 
soul  toward  God  that  is  the  true  state  of 
the  man.  The  man  that  loves  God  with 
all  his  heart  is  in  a  right  state ;  the  man 
that  does  not  love  him  thus  is  in  a  wrong 
one.  He  is  a  sinner ;  because  his  heart  is 
not  right  with  God.     He  may  think  his  life 


CONCERNING  MAN.  5 

a  good  one,  and  others  may  think  the 
same  ;  but  God  counts  him  guilty,  worthy 
of  death  and  hell.  The  outward  good  can- 
not make  up  for  the  inward  eviL  The 
good  deeds  done  to  his  fellow-men  can- 
not be  set  off  against  his  bad  thoughts  of 
God.  And  he  must  be  full  of  these  bad 
thoughts  so  long  as  he  does  not  love  this 
infinitely  loveable  and  infinitely  glorious 
Beincr  with  all  his  strength. 

God's  testimony  then  concerning  man  is, 
that  he  does  not  love  God  with  all  his 
heart ;  nay,  that  he  does  not  love  him  at 
alL  Not  to  love  our  neigbour  is  sin  ;  not 
to  love  a  parent  is  greater  sin ;  but  not  to 
love  God,  our  divine  parent,  is  greater  sin 
still. 

Man  need  not  try  to  say  a  good  word  for 
himself,  or  to  plead  "  not  guilty,"  unless  he 
can  shew  that  he  loves,  and  has  always 
loved  God  with  his  whole  heart  and  soul. 
Tf  he  can  truly  say  this,  he  is  all  right,  he 
is  not  a  sinner,  and  does  not  need  pardon. 

A  2 


GOD  S  TESTIMOITY 


He  will  find  his  way  to  the  kingdom  with- 
out the  cross  and  without  a  Saviour.  But,  if 
he  cannot  say  this,  "  his  mouth  is  stopped," 
and  he  is  "  guilty  before  God."  However 
favourably  a  good  outward  life  may  dispose 
himself  and  others  to  look  upon  his  case 
just  now,  the  verdict  will  go  against  him 
hereafter.  This  is  man's  day,  when  man's 
judgments  prevail ;  but  God's  day  is  com- 
ing, when  the,  case  shall  be  strictly  tried 
upon  its  real  merits.  Then  the  Judge  of 
all  the  earth  shall  do  right,  and  the  sinner 
be  put  to  shame. 

There  is  another  and  yet  worse  charge 
against  him.  He  does  not  believe  on  the 
name  of  the  Son  of  God,  nor  love  the  Christ 
of  God.  This  is  his  sin  ol  sins.  That  his 
heart  is  not  right  with  God  is  the  first 
charge  against  him.  That  his  heart  is  not 
right  with  the  Son  of  God  is  the  second. 
And  it  is  this  second  that  is  the  crowning, 
crushing  sin,  carrying  with  it  more  terrible 
damnation  than  all   other   sins  together 


CONCERNING  MAN.  / 

"  He  that  believeth  not  is  condemned  al- 
ready ;  because  he  hath  not  believed  in  the 
name  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God," 
(John  iii.  18).  "  He  that  believeth  not  God, 
hath  made  him  a  liar  ;  because  he  believeth 
not  the  record  which  God  gave  of  his  Son," 
(1  John  v.  10).  "He  that  believeth  not 
shall  be  damned,"  (Mark  xvi.  16).  Hence 
it  was  that  the  apostles  preached  "  repent- 
ance toward  God,  and  faith  toward  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  (Acts  xx.  21).  /And 
hence  it  is  that  the  first  sin  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  brings  home  to  a  man  is  unbelief ; 
u  when  he  is  come  lie  will  reprove  the  world 
of  sin,  because  they  believe  not  on  me," 
(John  xvi.  8,  9). 

Such  is  God's  condemnation  of  man.  Of 
this  the  whole  Bible  is  full.  That  great 
love  of  God  which  his  word  reveals  is  based 
on  this  condemnation.  It  is  love  to  the 
condemned.  God's  testimony  to  his  own 
grace  has  no  meaning,  save  as  resting  on  or 
taking  foi  granted  his  testimony  to  man's 


8         god's  testimony  concerning  man. 

guilt  and  ruin.  Nor  is  it  against  man  as 
merely  a  being  morally  diseased  or  sadly 
unfortunate  that  lie  testifies  ;  but  as  guilty 
of  death,  under  wrath,  sentenced  to  the 
eternal  curse ;  for  that  crime  of  crimes,  a 
heart  not  right  with  God,  and  not  true  to 
his  Incarnate  Son. 

This  is  a  divine  verdict,  not  a  human 
one.  It  is  God,  not  man,  who  condemns, 
and  God  is  not  a  man  that  he  should  He. 
This  is  God's  testimony  concerning  man, 
and  we  know  taat  this  witness  is  true,  ,J, 


CHAPTER  II. 


MAN  S  OWN  CHARACTER  NO  GROUND  OF  PEACE. 


Prov.  xxviii. 

26. 

Jer.  xvii.  5. 

1  Cor.  1. 29. 

Jer.  ii.  35-37. 

Hosea  x.  13. 

Gal.  ii.  161 

..    vii.  4. 

Luke  xviii.  9. 

..   iii.  10. 

..    ix.23. 

Rom.  iii.  9-20. 

Phil.  iii.  3,  4. 

..    xiii.25. 

..    x.  3. 

1  John  i.  8, 10. 

If  God  testify  against  us,  who  can  testify 
for  us  ?  If  God's  opinion  of  man's  sinful- 
ness, his  judgment  of  man's  guilt,  and  his 
declaration  of  sin's  evil  be  so  very  decided, 
there  can  be  no  hope  of  acquittal  for  us  on 
the  ground  of  personal  character  or  good- 
ness, either  of  heart  or  life.  That  which 
God  sees  in  us  furnishes  only  matter  for 
condemnation,  not  for  pardon. 

It  is  vain  to  struggle  or  murmur  agajnst 
God's  judgment       He  is  the  Judge  of  all 


10  man's  own  character 

the  earth ;  and  he  is  right  as  well  as  sove- 
reign in  his  judgment.  He  must  be  obeyed ; 
his  law  is  inexorable  ;  it  cannot  be  broken 
without  making  the  breaker  of  it  (even  in 
one  jot  or  tittle)  worthy  of  death. 

When  the  Holy  Spirit  opens  the  eyes  of 
the  soul  it  sees  this.  Conviction  of  sin  is 
just  the  sinner  seeing  himself  as  he  is,  and 
as  God  has  all  along  seen  him.  Then  every 
fond  idea  of  self-goodness,  either  in  whole  or 
in  part,  vanishes  away.  The  things  in  him 
that  once  seemed  good  appear  so  bad,  and 
the  bad  things  so  very  bad,  that  every  self- 
prop  falls  from  beneath  him,  and  all  hope 
of  being  saved,  in  consequence  of  some- 
thing in  his  own  character,  is  then  taken 
away.  He  sees  that  he  cannot  save  him- 
self; nor  help  God  to  save  him.  He  is 
lost,  and  he  is  helpless.  Doings,  feelings, 
strivings,  prayings,  givings,  abstainings, 
and  the  like,  are  found  to  be  no  relief  from 
a  sense  of  guilt,  and,  therefore,  no  resting- 
place  for  a  troubled  heart.     If  sin  were  but 


NO  GROUND  OF  PEACE.  11 

a  disease  or  a  misfortune,  these  apparent 
good  things  might  relieve  him,  as  being 
favourable  symptoms  of  returning  health  ; 
but  when  sin  is  guilt  even  more  than 
disease;  and  when  the  sinner  is  not  merely 
sick,  but  condemned  by  the  righteous 
judge ;  then  none  of  these  goodnesses  in 
himself  can  reach  his  case,  for  they  cannot 
assure  him  of  a  complete  and  righteous 
pardon,  and,  therefore,  cannot  pacify  his 
roused  and  wounded  conscience. 

He  sees  God's  unchangeable  hatred  of 
sin,  and  the  coming  revelation  of  his  wrath 
against  the  sinner ;  and  he  cannot  but 
tremble.  An  old  writer  thus  describes  his 
own  case,  "  I  had  a  deep  impression  of  the 
things  of  God  ;  a  natural  condition  and  sin 
appeared  worse  than  hell  itself ;  the  world 
and  vanities  thereof  terrible  and  exceeding 
dangerous  ;  it  was  fearful  to  have  ado  with 
it,  or  to  be  rich ;  I  saw  its  day  coming  ; 
Scripture  expiessions  were  weighty;  a 
Saviour   was  a   big  thing  in  mine  eyes : 


12 

Christ's  agonies  were  earnest  with  me  ;  I 
thought  that  all  my  days  I  was  in  a  dream 
till  now,  or  like  a  child  in  jest ;  and  I 
thought  the  world  was  sleeping." 

The  question,  "Wherewith  shall  I  come 
before  the  Lord  ?"  is  not  one  which  can  be 
decided  by  an  appeal  to  personal  character, 
or  goodness  of  life,  or  prayers,  or  perform- 
ances of  religion.  The  way  of  approach  is 
aot  for  us  to  settle.  God  has  settled  it ; 
and  it  only  remains  for  us  to  avail  our- 
selves of  it.  He  has  fixed  it  on  grounds 
altogether  irrespective  of  our  character  ;  or 
rather  on  grounds  which  take  for  granted 
simply  that  we  are  sinners,  and  that  there- 
fore the  element  of  goodness  in  us,  as  a 
title,  or  warrant,  or  recommendation,  is  al- 
together inadmissible,  either  in  whole  or 
in  part 

To  say,  as  some  inquiring  ones  do  at  the 
outset  of  their  anxiety,  I  will  set  myself  to 
pray,  and  after  I  have  prayed  a  sufficient 
length  of  time,  and  with  tolerable  earnest- 


NO  GROUNL   OF  PEACE.  13 

ness,  I  may  approach  and  count  upon  ac- 
ceptance, is  not  only  to  build  upon  the 
quality  and  quantity  of  our  prayers,  but  it 
is  to  overlook  the  real  question  before  the 
sinner,  "  How.  am  I  to  approach  God  in 
order  to  pray  ?"  All  prayers  are  ap- 
proaches to  God,  and  the  sinner's  anxious 
question  is,  "How  may  I  approach  God?" 
God's  explicit  testimony  to  man  is,  "You 
are  unfit  to  approach  me  ;"  and  it  is  a  de- 
nial of  the  testimony  to  say,  "  I  will  pray 
myself  out  of  this  unfitness  into  fitness  ;  I 
will  work  myself  into  a  right  state  of  mind 
and  character  for  drawing  near  to  God." 
Anxious  spirit !  Were  you  from  this  mo- 
ment to  cease  from  sin,  and  do  nothing  but 
good  all  the  rest  of  your  life,  it  would  not 
do.  Were  you  to  begin  praying  now,  and 
do  nothing  else  but  pray  ail  your  days,  it 
would  not  do  !  Your  own  character  cannot 
be  your  way  of  approach,  nor  your  ground 
of  confidence  toward  God.  No  amount  of 
praying,  or  working,  or  feeling,  can  satisfy 

B 


14 

the  righteous  law,  or  pacify  a  guilty  con- 
science, or  quench  the  flaming .  sword  that 
guards  the  access  into  the  presence  of  the 
infinitely  Holy  One. 

That  which  makes  it  safe  for  you  to  draw 
near  to  God,  and  right  for  God  to  receive 
you,  must  be  something  altogether  away 
from  and  independent  of  yourself ;  for 
yourself  and  everything  pertaining  to  your- 
self, God  has  already  condemned ;  and  no 
condemned  thing  can  give  you  any  warrant 
for  going  to  him,  or  hoping  for  acceptance. 
Your  liberty  of  entrance  must  come  from, 
something  "which  he  has  accepted ;  not 
from  something  which  he  has  condemned. 

I  knew  an  awakened  soul  who,  in  the 
bitterness  of  his  spirit,  thus  set  himself  to 
work  and  pray  in  order  to  get  peace.  He 
doubled  the  amount  of  his  devotions,  saying 
to  himsolf,  Surely  God  will  give  me  peace. 
But  the  peace  did  not  come.  He  set  up 
family  worship,  saying,  Surely  God  will 
give  me  peace.     But  the  peace  came  not. 


NO  GROUND  OF  PEACE.  ~]fO 

At  last  he  bethought  himself  of  having  a 
prayer-meeting  in  his  house  as  a  certain 
remedy.  He  fixed  the  night ;  called  his 
neighbours  ;  and  prepared  himself  for  con- 
ducting the  meeting,  by  writing  a  prayer 
and  learning  it  by  heart.  As  he  finished 
the  operation  of  learning  it,  preparatory  to 
the  meeting,  he  threw  it  down  on  the  table, 
saying,  "  Surely  that  will  do,  God  will  give 
me  peace  now."  In  that  moment,  a  still 
small  voice  seemed  to  speak  in  his  ear,  say- 
ing, "  No,  that  will  not  do  ;  but  Christ  will 
do."  Straightway  the  scales  fell  from  his 
eyes,  and  the  burden  from  his  shoulders. 
Peace  poured  in  like  a  river.  "  Christ  will 
do,"  was  his  watchword  for  life. 

Very  clear  is  God's  testimony  against 
man,  and  man's  doings,  in  this  great  matter 
of  approach  and  acceptance.  "Not  by 
works  of  righteousness  which  we  have 
done,"  says  Paul  in  one  place  (Titus  iii.  5), 
and  "  to  him  that  worketh  not,"  says  he  in 
a  second  (Rom.  iv.  4)  ;  "not  justified  by 


16 


the  works  of  the  law,"  says  he  in  a  third 
(Gal.  ii.  16). 

The  sinner's  peace  with  God  is  not  to 
come  from  his  own  character.  No  grounds 
of  peace  or  elements  of  reconciliation  can 
be  extracted  from  himself,  either  directly 
or  indirectly.  His  one  qualification  for 
peace  is,  that  he  needs  it.  It  is  not  what 
he  has,  bat  what  he  lacks  of  good  that 
draws  him  to  God ;  and  it  is  the  con- 
sciousness of  this  lack  that  bids  him  look 
elsewhere,  for  something  both  to  invite  and 
embolden  him  to  approach.  It  is  our  sick- 
ness, not  our  health,  that  fits  us  for  the 
physician,  and  casts  us  upon  his  skill. 

No  guilty  conscience  can  be  pacified  with 
anything  short  of  that  which  will  make 
pardon  a  present,  a  sure,  and  a  righteous 
thing.  Can  our  best  doings,  our  best  feel- 
ings, our  best  prayers,  our  best  sacrifices, 
bring  this  about  %  Nay  ;  having  accumu- 
lated these  to  the  utmost,  does  not  the 
sinner  feel  that  pardon  is  just  as  far  off 


NO  GROUND  OP  PEACE.  17 

and  uncertain  as  before  ?  and  that  all  his 
earnestness  cannot  persuade  God  to  admit 
him  to  favour,  or  bribe  his  own  conscience 
into  true  quiet  even  for  an  hour  ? 

In  all  false  religion,  the  worshipper  rests 
his  hope  of  divine  favour  upon  something 
in  his  own  character,  or  life,  or  religious 
duties.  The  Pharisee  did  this  when  he 
came  into  the  temple,  "  thanking  God  that 
he  was  not  as  other  men,"  (Luke  xviii.  11). 
So  do  those  in  our  day  who  think  to  get 
peace  by  doing,  feeling,  and  praying  more 
than  others,  or  than  they  themselves  have 
done  in  time  past ;  and  who  refuse  to  take 
the  peace  of  the  free  gospel  till  they  have 
amassed  such  an  amount  of  this  doing  and 
feeling  as  will  ease  their  consciences,  and 
make  them  conclude  that  it  would  not  be 
fair  in  God  to  reject  the  application  of  men 
so  earnest  and  devout  as  they.  The  Gala- 
tians  did  this  also  when  they  insisted  on 
adding  the  law  of  Moses  to  the  gospel  of 
Christ  as  the  ground  of  confidence  toward 

b2 


18  MAn's  OWN    CHARACTER 

God.  Thus  do  many  act  among  ourselves. 
They  will  not  take  confidence  from  God's 
character  or  Christ's  work,  but  from  their 
own  character  and  work  ;  though  in  refer- 
ence to  all  this  it  is  written,  "The  Lord  hath 
rejected  thy  confidences,  and  thou  shalt  not 
prosper  in  them,"  (Jer.  ii.  37).  They  object 
to  a  present  confidence,  for  that  assumes 
that  a  sinner's  resting-place  is  wholly  out 
of  himself, — ready-made,  as  it  Were,  by  God. 
They  would  have  this  confidence  to  be  a 
very  gradual  thing,  in  order  that  they  may 
gain  time,  and,  by  a  little  diligence  in  re- 
ligious observances,  may  so  add  to  their 
stock  of  duties,  prayers,  experiences,  devo- 
tions, that  they  may,  with  some  humble 
hope,  as  they  call  it,  claim  acceptance  from 
God.  By  this  course  of  devout  living  they 
think  they  have  made  themselves  more 
acceptable  to  God  than  they  were  before 
they  began  this  religious  process,  and  much 
more  entitled  to  expect  the  divine  favour 
than  those  who  have  not  so  qualified  them- 


HO  GROUND  OF  PEACE  19 

selves.  In  all  this  the  attempted  resting- 
place  is  self, — that  self  which  God  has 
condemned.  They  would  not  rest  upon 
wftpraying,  or  wwworking,  or  «%devout 
self;  but  they  think  it  light  and  safe  to 
rest  upon  praying,  and  working,  and  de- 
vout self  and  they  call  this  humility  !  The 
happy  confidence  of  the  simple  believer  who 
takes  God's  word  at  once,  and  rests  on  it, 
they  call  presumption  or  fanaticism  ;  their 
own  miserable  uncertainty,  extracted  from 
the  doings  of  self,  they  speak  of  as  a  humble 
hope. 

The  sinner  s  own  character,  in  any  form, 
and  under  any  process  of  improvement, 
cannot  furnish  reasons  for  trusting  God. 
However  amended,  it  cannot  speak  peace 
to  his  conscience,  nor  afford  him  any  war- 
rant for  reckoning  on  God's  favour;  nor 
can  it  help  to  heal  the  breach  between  him 
arid  God.  For  God  can  accept  nothing  but 
perfection  in  such  a  case,  and  the  sinner 
has  nothing  but  imperfection  to  present. 


20  man's  own  character 

Imperfect  duties  and  devotions  cannot  per- 
suade God  to  forgive.  Besides,  be  it  remem- 
bered that  the  person  of  the  worshipper 
must  be  accepted  before  his  services  can  be 
acceptable  ;  so  that  nothing  can  be  of  any 
use  to  the  sinner  save  that  which  provides 
for  personal  acceptance  completely,  and  at 
the  outset.  The  sinner  must  go  to  God  as 
lie  is,  or  not  at  all.  To  try  to  pray  himself 
into  something  better  than  a  condemned 
sinner,  in  order  to  win  God's  favour,  is  to 
make  prayer  an  instrument  of  self-right- 
eousness ;  so  that,  instead  of  its  being  the 
act  of  an  accepted  man,  it  is  the  purchase 
of  acceptance, — the  price  which  we  pay  to 
God  for  favouring  us,  and  the  bribe  with 
which  we  persuade  conscience  no  longer  to 
trouble  us  with  its  terrors.  No  knowledge 
of  self,  nor  consciousness  of  improvement 
of  self,  can  soothe  the  alarms  of  an  awTakened 
conscience,  or  be  any  ground  for  expecting 
the  friendship  of  God.  To  take  comfort 
from  our  good  doings,  or  good  feelings,  or 


NO  GROUND  OF  PEACE.  21 

good  plans,  or  good  prayers,  or  good  expe- 
riences, is  to  delude  ourselves,  and  to  say- 
peace  when  there  is  no  peace.  No  man 
can  quench  his  thirst  with  sand,  or  with 
water  from  the  Dead  Sea  ;  so  no  man  can 
find  rest  from  his  own  character  however 
good,  or  from  his  own  acts  however  religious. 
Even  were  he  perfect,  what  enjoyment  could 
there  be  in  thinking  about  his  own  perfec- 
tion? What  profit,  then,  can  there  be  in 
thinking  about  his  own  imperfection  ? 

Even  were  there  many  good  things  about 
him,  they  could  not  speak  peace ;  for  the 
good  things  which  might  speak  peace,  could 
not  make  up  for  the  evil  things  which  speak 
trouble  ;  and  what  a  poor,  self-made  peace 
would  that  be  which  arose  from  his  think- 
ing as  much  good  and  as  little  evil  of  him- 
self as  possible.  And  what  a  temptation, 
besides,  would  this  furnish,  to  extenuate  the 
evil  and  exaggerate  the  good  about  our- 
selves,— in  other  words,  to  deceive  our  own 
hearts.     Self-deception  must  always,  more 


22  man's  own  character 

or  less,  be  the  result  of  such  estimates  of 
our  own  experiences.  Laid  open,  as  we 
are,  in  such  a  case,  to  all  manner  of  self- 
blinding  influences,  it  is  impossible  that  we 
can  be  impartial  judges,  or  that  we  can  be 
"  without  guile"  (Psa.  xxxii.  2),  as  in  the 
case  of  those  who  are  freely  and  at  once 
forgiven. 

One  man  might  say,  My  sins  are  not  very 
great  or  many ;  surely  I  may  take  peace. 
Another  might  say,  I  have  made  up  for  my 
si  as  by  my  good  deeds,  I  may  have  peace. 
Another  might  say,  I  have  a  very  deep 
sense  of  sin,  I  may  have  peace.  Another 
might  say,  I  have  repented  of  my  sin,  I 
may  have  peace.  Another  might  say,  I 
pray  much,  I  work  much,  I  love  much,  I 
give  much,  I  may  have  peace.  What  temp- 
tation in  all  this  to  take  the  most  favour- 
able view  of  self  and  its  doings  !  But,  after 
all,  it  would  be  vain.  There  could  be  no 
real  peace  ;  for  its  foundation  would  be 
sand,  not  rock.     The  peace  or  confidence 


NO  GROUND  OF  PEACE.  23 

which  come  from  summing  up  the  good 
points  of  our  character,  and  thinking  of  our 
good  feelings  and  doings,  or  about  our  faith, 
and  love,  and  repentance,  must  be  made 
up  of  pride.  Its  basis  is  self-righteousness, 
or  at  least  self-approbation. 

It  does  not  mend  the  matter  to  say  that 
we  look  at  these  good  feelings  in  us,  as  the 
Spirit's  work,  not  our  own.  In  one  aspect 
this  takes  away  boasting,  but  in  another  it 
does  not.  It  still  makes  our  peace  to  turn 
upon  what  is  in  ourselves,  and  not  on  what 
is  in  God.  Nay,  it  makes  use  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  for  purposes  of  self-righteousness. 
It  says  that  the  Spirit  works  the  change 
in  us,  in  order  that  he  may  thereby  fur- 
nish us  with  a  ground  of  peace  within 
ourselves. 

No  doubt  the  Spirit's  work  in  us  must  be 
accompanied  with  peace  ;  but  not  because 
he  has  given  us  something  in  ourselves  to 
draw  our  peace  from.  It  is  that  kind  of 
peace  which  arises  unconsciously  from  tfce 


24  man's  own  character 

restoration  of  spiritual  health ;  but  not  that 
which  Scripture  calls  "peace  with  God." 
It  does  not  arise  from  thinking  about  the 
change  wrought  in  us,  but  unconsciously 
and  involuntarily  from  the  change  itself. 
If  a  broken  limb  be  made  whole,  we  get 
relief  straightway  ;  not  by  thinking  about 
the  healed  member, but  simply  in  the  bodily 
ease  and  comfort  which  the  cure  has  given. 
So  there  is  a  peace  arising  out  of  the  change 
of  nature  and  character  wrought  by  the 
Spirit ;  but  this  is  not  reconciliation  with 
God.  This  is  not  the  peace  which  the 
knowledge  of  forgiveness  brings.  It  accom- 
panies it,  and  flows  from  it,  but  the  two 
kinds  of  peace  are  quite  distinct  from  each 
other.  Nor  does  even  the  peace  which  at- 
tends the  restoration  of  spiritual  health 
come  at  second  hand,  from  thinking  about 
our  change  ;  but  directly  from  the  change 
itself.  That  change  is  the  soul's  new  health, 
and  this  health  is  in  itself  a  continual  glad- 
ness. 


NO  GROUND  OF  PEACtf.  25 

Still  it  remains  true,  that  in  ourselves  we 
have  no  resting-place.  "No  confidence  in 
the  flesh"  must  be  our  motto,  as  it  is  the 
foundation  of  God's  gospel. 


CHAPTER  III. 

god's  character  otjr  resting-place. 


Deut.  xxxiii.  26,  27.  Jer.  xvii.  13.  John  iii.  10. 

Job  xxii.  21.  Nah.  i.  3,  7.  ...   xvii.  3. 

Tea.  ix.  10.  MIcah  vii.  IS.  Rom.  ii.  4. 

...   xxxiv.  8.  Hab.  iii.  17,  18.  James  i.  17. 

Jer.  ix.  24.  Luke  il.  14.  1  John  iv.  9,  10. 


We  have  seen  that  a  sinner's  peace  cannot 
come  from  himself,  nor  from  the  know- 
ledge of  himself  nor  from  thinking  about 
his  own  acts  and  feelings,  nor  from  the 
consciousness  of  any  amendment  of  his  old 
self. 

Whence,  then,  is  it  to  come  ?  How  does 
he  get  it  ? 

It  can  only  come  from  God ;  and  it  is 
in  knowing  Goji  that  he  gets  it.  God  has 
written  a  volume  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 


ing  himself  known  ;  and  it  is  in  this  reve- 
lation of  his  character  that  the  sinner  is  to 
find  the  rest  that  he  is  seeking.  God  him- 
self is  the  fountain-head  of  our  peace ;  his 
revealed  truth  is  the  channel  through 
which  this  peace  finds  its  way  into  us  ; 
and  his  Holy  Spirit  is  the  great  inter- 
preter of  that  truth  to  us.  "Acquaint 
thyself  now  with  God,  and  be  at  peace," 
(Job  xxii.  21).  Yes  ;  acquaintanceship 
with  God  is  peace  ! 

Had  God  told  us  that  he  was  not 
gracious,  that  he  took  no  interest  in  our 
welfare,  and  that  he  had  no  intention  of 
pardoning  us,  we  could  have  no  peace  and 
no  hope.  In  that  case  our  knowing  God 
would  only  make  us  miserable.  Our 
situation  would  be  like  that  of  the  devils, 
who  "believe  and  tremble"  (James  ii.  19) ; 
and  the  more  that  we  knew  of  such  a 
God,  we  should  tremble  the  more.  For 
how  fearful  a  thing  must  it  be  to 
have   the   great   God   that  made  us,  the 


28  god's  character 

great  Father  of  Spirits,  against  us,  not 
for  us ! 

Strange  to  say,  this  is  the  very  state  of 
disquietude  in  which  we  find  many  who 
profess  to  believe  in  a  God  "  merciful  and 
gracious  ! "  With  the  Bible  in  their 
hands,  and  the  cross  before  their  eyes, 
they  wander  on  in  a  state  of  darkness  and 
fear,  such  as  would  have  arisen  had  God 
revealed  himself  in  hatred,  not  in  love. 
They  seem  to  believe  the  very  opposite  of 
what  the  Bible  teaches  us  concerning  God; 
and  to  attach  a  meaning  to  the  Cross,  the 
very  opposite  of  what  the  gospel  declares 
it  really  bears.  Had  God  been  all  frowns, 
and  the  Bible  all  terrors,  and  Christ  all 
sternness,  these  men  could  not  have  been 
in  a  more  troubled  and  uncertain  state  than 
that  in  which  they  are. 

How  is  this  %  Have  they  not  misunder- 
stood the  Bible  ?  Have  they  not  mistaken 
the  character  of  God,  looking  on  him  as 
an  "austere  man"  and  a  "hard  master"? 


OUR  RESTING-PLACE.  29 

Are  they  not  labouring  to  supplement  the 
grace  of  God  by  something  on  their  part, 
as  if  they  believed  that  this  grace  was  not 
sufficient  to  meet  their  case,  until  they 
had  attracted  it  to  themselves  by  some 
earnest  performances,  or  spiritual  exer- 
cises, of  their  own  ? 

God  has  declared  himself  to  be  gracious 
"  God  is  love."  He  has  embodied  this 
grace  in  the  person  and  work  of  his  be- 
loved Son.  He  has  told  us  that  this  grace 
i?  for  the  rfngodly.  the  unholy,  the  unfit, 
the  stouthearted,  the  dead  in  sin.  The 
more,  then,  that  wre  know  of  this  God  and 
of  his  grace,  the  more  will  his  peace  fill  us. 
Nor  will  the  greatness  of  our  sins,  and  the 
hardness  of  our  hearts,  or  the  changeable- 
ness  of  our  feelings,  discourage  or  disquiet, 
however  much  they  may  humble,  us,  and 
make  us  dissatisfied  with  ourselves.. 

Let  us  study  the  character  of  God : — 
holy,  yet  loving ;  the  love  not  interfering 
with  the  holiness,  nor  the  holiness  with 

C2 


30  god's  character 

the  love  ;  absolutely  sovereign,  yet  in- 
finitely gracious  ;  the  sovereignty  not 
straitening  the  grace,  nor  the  grace  the 
sovereignty ;  drawing  the  unwilling,  yet 
not  hindering  the  willing,  if  any  such 
there  be  ;  quickening  whom  he  will,  yet 
having  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the 
wicked ;  compelling  some  to  come  in,  yet 
freely  inviting  all !  Let  us  look  at  him  in 
the  face  of  Jesus  Christ  ;  for  He  is  the 
express  image  of  his  person,  and  he  that 
hath  seen  Him  hath  seen  the  Father. 
The  knowledge  of  that  gracious  character, 
as  interpreted  by  the  cross  of  Christ,  is 
the  true  remedy  for  our  disquietudes. 
Insufficient  acquaivtanceship  tuith  God 
lies  at  the  root  of  our  fears  and  gloom.  I 
know  that  flesh  and  blood  cannot  reveal 
God  to  you,  and  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
alone  can  enable  you  to  know  either  the 
Father  or  the  Son.  But  I  would  not  have 
you  for  a  moment  suppose  that  this  Spirit 
is  reluctant  to  do  his  work  in  vou  ;  nor 


OUR  RESTING-PLACE.  31 

would    I    encourage    you    in    the    awful 
thought,  that  you  are  willing  while  he  is 
unwilling  ;  or  that  the  sovereignty  of  God 
is  a  hindrance  to  the  sinner,  and  a  restraint 
of  the  Spirit.     The  whole  Bible  takes  for 
granted  that  all  this  is  absolutely  impos- 
sible.    Never    can    the    great    truths    of 
divine  sovereignty  and  the   Spirit's  work 
land  us,  as  some  seem  to  think  .they  may 
do,  in  such  a  conflict  between  a  willing 
sinner  and  an  unwilling  God.     The  whole 
Bible  is  so  written  by  the  Spirit,  and  the 
gospel  was  so  preached  by  the  apostles,  as 
never  to  raise  the  question  of  God's  will- 
ingness, nor  to  lead  to  the  remotest  sus- 
picion   of    his    readiness    to   furnish   the 
sinner  with   all   needful   aid.     Hence   the 
great  truths  of  God's  eternal  election,  and 
Christ's  redemption  of  his  Church,  as  we 
read   them   in   the   Bible,    are   helps   and 
encouragements  to   the   soul.     But,  inter- 
preted as  they  are   by  many,  they   seem 
barrier- walls,  rot  ladders   for  scaling  the 


32  god's  character 

great  barrier- wall  of  man's  unwillingness  ; 
and  anxious  souls  become  land-locked  in 
metaphysical  questions,  out  of  which  there 
can  be  no  way  of  extrication  save  that  of 
taking  God  at  his  word. 

In  the  Bible  God  has  revealed  himself. 
In  Christ  he  has  done  so  most  expressively. 
He  has  done  so  that  there  might  be  no 
mistake  as  to  it  on  the  part  of  man. 

Christ's  person  is  a  revelation  of  God. 
Christ's  work  is  a  revelation  of  God.  Christ's 
words  are  a  revelation  of  God.  He  is  in  the 
Father,  and  the  Father  in  him.  His  words 
and  works  are  the  words  and  works  of  the 
Father.  In  the  manger  he  shewed  us  God. 
In  the  synagogue  of  Nazareth  he  shewed 
us  God.  At  Jacob's  well  he  shewed  us  God. 
At  the  tomb  of  Lazarus  he  shewed  us  God. 
On  Olivet,  as  he  wept  over  Jerusalem,  he 
shewed  us  God.  On  the  cross  he  shewed 
us  God.  In  the  tomb  he  shewed  us  God. 
In  his  resurrection  he  shewed  us  God.  If 
we  say  with  Philip,  "  Shew  us  the  Father, 


OUR  RESTING-PLACE,  S3 

and  it  sufiftceth  us  ;"  he  answers.  "Have  I 
been  so  long  time  with  you,  and  yet  hast 
thou  not  known  me  ?  He  that  hath  seen 
me  hath  seen  the  Father/'  (John  xiv.  8,  9). 
This  God  whom  Christ  reveals  as  the  God 
of  righteous  grace  and  gracious  righteous- 
ness, is  the  God  with  whom  we  have  to  do. 

To  know  his  character  as  thus  interpreted 
to  us  by  Jesus  and  his  cross,  is  to  have  peace. 
It  is  into  this  knowledge  of  the  Father  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  leads  the  soul  whom  he  is 
conducting,  by  his  almighty  power,  from 
darkness  to  light.  For  everything  that  we 
know  of  God  Ave  owe  to  this  divine  Teacher, 
this  Interpreter,  this  "  One  among  a  thou- 
sand," (Job  xxxiii.  23).  But  never  let  the 
sinner  imagine  that  he  is  more  willing  to 
learn  than  the  Spirit  is  to  teach.  Never 
let  him  say  to  himself,  "  I  would  fain  know 
God,  but  I  cannot  of  myself,  and  the  Spirit 
will  not  teach  me." 

It  is  not  enough  for  us  to  say  to  some 
dispirited  cie,  It  is  your  unbelief  that  is 


34  god's  character 

keeping  you  wretched;  only  believe  and 
all  is  well.  This  is  true ;  but  it  is  only 
general  truth  ;  which,  in  many  cases,  is  of 
no  use,  because  it  does  not  shew  him  how 
it  applies  to  him.  On  this  point  he  is  often 
at  fault ;  thinking  that  faith  is  some  great 
work  to  be  done,  which  he  is  to  labour  at 
with  all  his  might,  praying  all  the  while  to 
God  to  help  him  in  doing  this  great  work  ; 
and  that  unbelief  is  some  evil  principle, 
requiring  to  be  uprooted  before  the  gospel 
will  be  of  any  use  to  him. 

But  what  is  the  real  meaning  of  this 
faith  and  this  unbelief  ? 

In  all  unbelief  there  are  these  two  things, 
— a  good  opinion  of  one's  self,  and  a  bad 
opinion  of  God.  So  long  as  these  two 
things  exist,  it  is  impossible  for  an  inquirer 
to  find  rest.  His  good  opinion  ol  himself 
makes  him  think  it  quite  possible  to  win 
God's  favour  by  his  own  religious  perform- 
ances ;  and  his  bad  opinion  of  God  makes 
him  unwilling  and  afraid  to  put  his  case 


OUR  RESTING-PLACE  85 

wliol'y  into  his  hands.  The  object  of  the 
Holy  Spirit's  work,  in  convincing  of  sin,  is 
to  alter  the  sinner's  opinion  of  himself, 
and  so  to  reduce  his  estimate  of  his  own 
character,  that  he  shall  think  of  himself 
as  God  does,  and  so  cease  to  suppose  it 
possible  that  he  can  be  justified  by  any 
excellency  of  his  own.  Having  altered  the 
sinner's  good  opinion  of  himself,  the  Spirit 
then  alters  his  evil  opinion  of  God,  so  as  to 
make  him  see  that  the  God  with  whom  he 
has  to  do  is  really  the  God  of  all  grace. 

But  the  inquirer  denies  that  he  has  a 
good  opinion  of  himself,  and  owns  himself 
a  sinner.  Now  a  man  may  say  this  ;  but 
really  to  hnovj  it  is  something  more  than 
saying.  Besides,  he  may  be  willing  to  take 
the  name  of  sinner  to  himself,  in  common 
with  his  fellow-men,  and  yet  not  at  all  own 
himself  such  a  sinner  as  God  says  he  is, — 
such  a  sinner  as  needs  a  whole  Saviour  to 
himself, — such  a  sinner  as  needs  the  cross, 
and  blood,  and  righteousness  of  the  Son  of 


36  god's  character 

God.  He  may  not  have  quite  such  a  ha  1 
opinion  of  himself  as  to  make  him  sensible 
that  he  can  expect  nothing  from  God  on 
the  score  of  personal  goodness,  or  amend- 
ment of  life,  or  devout  observance  of  duty, 
or  superiority  to  others.  It  takes  a  great 
deal  to  destroy  a  man's  good  opinion  of 
himself;  and  even  after  he  has  lost  his 
good  opinion  of  his  works,  he  retains  his 
good  opinion  of  his  heart ;  and  even  after 
he  has  lost  that,  he  holds  fast  his  good 
opinion  of  his  own  religious  duties,  by 
means  of  which  he  hopes  to  make  up  for 
evil  works  and  a  bad  heart.  Nay,  he  hopes 
to  be  able  so  to  act,  and  feel,  and  pray,  as 
to  lead  God  to  entertain  a  good  opinion  ot 
him,  and  receive  him  into  favour. 

All  such  efforts  spring  from  thinking 
well  of  himself  in  some  measure  ;  and  also 
from  his  thinking  evil  of  God,  as  if  he 
would  not  receive  him  as  he  is.  If  he 
knew  himself  as  God  does,  he  would  no 
more  resort  to  such  efforts  than  he  would 


OUR  RESTING-PLACE.  37 

think  of  walking  up  an  Alpine  precipice. 
How  difficult  it  is  to  make  a  man  think 
of  himself  as  God  does !  What  but  the' 
almightiness  of  the  Divine  Spirit  can  ac- 
complish this  1 

But  the  inquirer  says  that  he  has  not  a 
bad  opinion  of  God.  But  has  he  such  an 
opinion  of  him  as  the  Bible  gives  or  the' 
cross  reveals  %  Has  he  such  an  opinion  of 
him  as  makes  him  feel  quite  safe  in  put- 
ting his  soul  into  his  gracious  hands,  and 
trusting  him  with  its  eternal  keeping? 
If  not,  what  is  the  extent  or  nature  of  his 
good  opinion  of  God  ?  The  knowledge  of 
God,  which  the  cross  supplies,  ought  to  set 
all  doubt  aside,  and  make  distrust  appear 
in  the  most  odious  of  aspects,  as  a  wretched 
misrepresentation  of  God's  character  and 
a  slander  upon  his  gracious  name.  Un- 
belief, then,  is  the  belief  of  a  lie  and  the 
rejection  of  the  truth.  It  obliterates  from, 
the  cross  the  gracious  name  of  God,  and 

inscribes  another  name,  the  name  of  an 

D 


f. 


33  god's  character 

unknown  god,  in  which  there  is  no  peace 
for  the  sinner  and  no  rest  for  the  weary. 

Accept,  then,  the  character  of  God  as 
given  in  the  gospel ;  read  aright  his  blessed 
iame  as  it  is  written  upon  the  cross  ;  take 
the  simple  interpretation  given  of  his 
mind  toward  the  ungodly,  as  you  have  it 
at  length  in  the  glad  tidings  of  peace.  Is 
not  that  enough  ?  If  that  which  God  has 
made  known  of  himself  be  not  enough  to 
allay  your  fears,  nothing  else  will.  The 
Holy  Spirit  will  not  give  you  peace  irre- 
spective of  your  views  of  God's  character. 

hat  would  be  countenancing  the  worship 
of  a  false  god  instead  of  the  true  God  re- 
vealed in  the  Bible.  It  is  in  connection 
with  the  truth  concerning  the  true  God, 
"  the  God  of  all  grace,"  that  the  Spirit  gives 
peace.  It  is  the  love  of  the  true  God  that 
he  sheds  abroad  in  the  heart. 

The  object  of  the  Spirit's  work  is  to 
make  us  acquainted  with  the  true  Jehovah  ; 
that  in  him  we  may  rest ;  not  to  produce 


OUR  RESTING-PLACE.  39 

in  us  certain  feelings,  the  consciousness  of 
which  will  make  us  think  better  of  our- 
selves, and  give  us  confidence  toward  God. 
That  which  he  shews  us  of  ourselves  is 
only  evil ;  that  which  he  shews  us  of  God 
is  only  good.  He  does  not  enable  us  to 
feel  or  to  believe,  in  order  that  we  may  be 
comforted  by  our  feeling  or  our  faith.  Even 
when  working  in  us  most  powerfully  he 
turns  our  eye  away  from  his  own  work  in 
us,  to  fix  it  on  God,  and  his  love  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord.  The  substance  of  the 
gospel  is  the  name  of  the  great  Jehovah, 
unfolded  in  and  by  Jesus  Christ ;  the  cha- 
racter of  him  in  whom  we  "  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being,"  as  the  "just  God, 
yet  the  Saviour,"  (Is.  xlv.  21),  the  Justifier 
of  the  ungodly. 

Inquiring  spirit,  turn  your  eye  to  the 
cross  and  see  these  two  things, — the  Cruci- 
fiers  and  the  Crucified.  See  the  Cruel- 
fiers,  the  haters  of  God  and  of  his  Son. 
They  are  yourself.     Read  in  them  your 


40-       30D  S  CHARACTER  OUR  RESTING-PLACE. 

own  character,  and  cease  to  think  of  mak- 
ing that  a  ground  of  peace.  See  the 
Crucified.  It  is  God  himself;  incarnate 
love.  It  is  the  God  who  made  you,  suffer- 
ing, dying  for  the  ungodly.  Can  you  sus- 
pect his  grace?  Can  you  cherish  evil 
thoughts  of  him  ?  Can  you  ask  anything 
farther  to  awaken  in  you  the  fullest  and 
most  unreserved  confidence  ?  Will  you 
misinterpret  that  agony  and  death  by  say- 
ing either  that  they  do  not  mean  grace,  or 
that  the  grace  which  they  mean  is  not  for 
you  |  Call  to  mind  that  which  is  written, — 
"  Hereby  perceive  we  the  love  of  God,  that 
he  laid  down  his  life  for  us,"  (1  John  iii. 
16).  "  Herein  is  LOVE,  not  that  we  loved 
God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son 
to  be  the  propitiation  of  our  sins."  (1  John 
iv.  10.) 


CHAPTER  IV. 


RIGHTEOUS  GRACE. 

Exod.  xxxiv.  6, 7.       Luke  ii.  14 

1  Cor.  i.  80. 

Psa.  cxvi.  5.                 Rom.  iii.  26. 

Heb.  ii.  9. 

Isa.  xxxii.  17.                 ..    v.  21. 

1  John  i.  Q. 

We  have  spoken  of  God's  character  as  "the 
God  of  all  grace  "  (1  Pet.  v.  10).  We  have 
seen  that  it  is  in  "  tasting  that  the  Lord 
is  gracious"  that  the  sinner  has  peace 
(1  Pet.  ii.  3). 

But  let  us  keep  in  mind  that  this  grace 
is  the  grace  of  a  righteous  God ;  it  is  the 
grace  of  one  who  is  Judge  as  well  as 
Father.  Unless  we  see  this  we  shall  mis- 
take the  gospel,  and  fail  in  appreciating 
both  the  pardon  we  are  seeking,  and  the 

great  sacrifice  through  which  it  comes  to 

2d 


42 


KIGHTEOUS  GRACE, 


us.  No  vague  forgiveness,  arising  out  of 
mere  paternal  love,  will  clo.  We  need  to 
know  what  kind  of  pardon  it  is  ;  and 
whether  it  proceeds  from  the  full  recogni- 
tion of  our  absolute  guiltiness  by  him  who 
is  to  "judge  the  world  in  righteousness." 
The  right  kind  of  pardon  comes  not  from 
love  alone,  but  from  law;  not  from  good 
mature,  but  from  righteousness;  not  from 
indifference  to  sin,  but  from  holiness. 

The  inquirer  who  is  only  half  in  earnest 
overlooks  this.  His  feelings  are  moved, 
but  his  conscience  is  not  roused.  Hence 
he  is  content  with  very  vague  ideas  of 
God's  mere  compassion  for  the  sinner's 
unhappiness.  To  him  human  guilt  seems 
but  human  misfortune,  and  God's  ac- 
quittal of  the  sinner  little  more  than  the 
overlooking  of  his  sin.  He  does  not 
trouble  himself  with  asking  how  the  for- 
giveness comes,  or  what  is  the  real  nature 
of  the  love  which  he  professes  to  have 
received.     He  is  easily  soothed  to  sleep, 


RIGHTEOUS  GRACE.  43 

because  he  has  never  been  fully  awake. 
He  is,  at  the  best,  a  stony-ground  hearer ; 
soon  losing  the  poor  measure  of  joy  that 
he  may  have  got ;  becoming  a  formalist ; 
or  perhaps  a  trifler  with  sin  ;  or,  it  may  be, 
a  religious  sentimentalist. 

But  he  whose  conscience  has  been 
pierced,  is  not  so  easily  satisfied.  He  sees 
that  the  God,  whose  favour  he  is  seeking, 
is  holy  as  well  as  loving ;  and  that  he  has 
to  do  with  righteousness  as  well  as  grace. 
Hence  the  first  inquiry  that  he  makes  is 
as  to  the  righteousness  of  the  pardon  which 
the  grace  of  God  holds  out.  He  must  be 
satisfied  on  this  point,  and  see  that  the 
grace  is  right  eons  grace,  ere  he  can  enjoy 
it  at  all.  The  more  alive  that  he  is  to 
his  own  unrighteousness,  the  more  does  he 
feel  the  need  of  ascertaining  the  right- 
eousness of  the  grace  which  we  make 
known  to  him. 

It  .does  not  satisfy  him  to  say,  that, 
since  it  comes  from  a  righteous  God,  it 


44  RIGHTEOUS  GRACE. 

must  be  righteous  grace.  His  conscience 
wants  to  see  the  righteousness  of  the  way 
by  which  it  comes.  Without  this  it  can- 
not be  pacified  or  "  purged  ;"  and  the  man. 
is  not  made  "  perfect  as  pertaining  to  the 
conscience"  (Heb.  ix.  9-14)  ;  but  must 
always  have  an  uneasy  feeling  that  all  is 
not  right ;  that  his  sins  may  one  day  rise 
up  against  him. 

That  which  soothes  the  heart  will  not 
always  pacify  the  conscience.  The  sight 
of  the  grace  will  do  the  former ;  but  only 
the  sight  of  the  righteousness  of  the  grace 
will  do  the  latter.  Till  the  latter  is  done, 
there  cannot  be  real  peace.  The  hurt  is 
healed  slightly,  and  j3eace  is  spoken  where 
there  is  no  peace  (Jer.  vi.  14).  The  "  heal- 
ing of  the  hurt  "  can  only  be  brought  about 
by  speaking  peace  where  there  is  peace. 

Here  the  work  of  Christ  comes  in  ;  and 
the  cross  of  the  Sin-bearer  answers  the 
question  which  conscience  had  raised, — "  Is 
it  righteous  grace  ?"     It  is  this  great  work 


BIGHTEOUS  GRACE.  **       45 

of  propitiation  that  exhibits  God  as  "  the 
just  God,  yet  the  Saviour"  (Is.  xlv.  21)  ; 
not  only  righteous  in  spite  of  his  justify- 
ing the  ungodly,  but  righteous  in  doing  so. 
It  shews  salvation  as  an  act  of  righteous- 
ness ;  nay,  one  of  the  highest  acts  of  right- 
eousness that  a  righteous  God  can  do.  It 
shews  pardon  not  only  as  the  deed  of  a 
righteous  God,  but  as  the  thing  which 
shews  how  righteous  he  is,  and  how  he 
hates  and  condemns  the  very  sin  that  he  is 
pardoning. 

Hear  the  word  of  the  Lord  concerning 
this  "  finished"  work.  "  Christ  died  for 
our  sins,"  (1  Cor.  xv.  3).  "  He  was  wounded 
for  our  transgressions,  he  was  bruised  for 
our  iniquities,"  (Is.  liii.  3).  "Christ  was 
once  offered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many," 
(Heb.  ix.  28).  "  He  gave  himself  for  us," 
(Tit.  ii.  14).  "  He  was  delivered  for  our 
offences,"  (Rom.  iv.  25).  "  He  gave  himself 
for  our  sins,"  (Gal.  i.  4).  "  Christ  died  for 
the  ungodly,"  (Rom.  v.  6).     "  He  hath  ap- 


46  "RIGHTEOUS  GRACE. 

peared,  to  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of 
himself,"  (Heb.  ix.  26).  "  Christ  hath  suf- 
fered for  us  in  the  flesh,"  (1  Pet.  iv.  1). 
"  Christ  hath  once  suffered  for  sins,  the 
just  for  the  unjust,"  (1  Pet.  iii.  18).  "  His 
own  self  bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on 
the  tree"  (1  Pet.  ii.  24). 

These  expressions  speak  of  something 
more  than  love.  Love  is  in  each  of  them  ; 
the  deep,  true,  real  love  of  God ;  but 
also  justice  and  holiness  ;  inflexible  and 
inexorable  adherence  to  law.  They  have 
no  meaning  apart  from  laiv;  law  as  the 
foundation,  pillar,  keystone  of  the  universe. 
But  their  connection  with  law  is  also 
their  connection  with  love.  For  as  t  was 
law,  in  its  unchangeable  perfection,  that 
constituted  the  necessity  for  the  Surety's 
death,  so  it  was  this  necessity  that  drew  out 
the  Surety's  love,  and  gave  also  glorious 
proof  of  the  love  of  him  who  made  him  to 
be  sin  for  us  (2  Cor.  v.  21).  For  if  a  man 
were  to  die  for  another,  when  there  was  no 


RIGHTEOUS  GRACE.        (  47 

necessity  for  his  doing  so,  we  should  hardly 
call  his  death  a  proof  of  love.  At  best, 
such  would  be  foolish  love,  or,  at  least,  a 
fond  and  idle  way  of  shewing  it.  But  to 
die  for  one,  when  there  is  really  need  of 
dying,  is  the  true  test  of  genuine  love.  To 
die  for  a  friend  when  nothing  less  will  save 
him ;  this  is  the  proof  of  love  !  When 
either  he  or  we  must  die  ;  and  when  he,  to 
save  us  from  dying,  dies  himself ;  this  is 
love.  There  was  need  of  a  death,  if  we 
were  to  be  saved  from  dying.  Righteous- 
ness made  the  necessity.  And,  to  meet 
this  terrible  necessity,  the  Son  of  God  took 
flesh  and  died  !  He  died,  because  "it  was 
written,  "The  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die," 
(Ezek.  xviii.  4).  Love  led  him  down  to  the 
cradle  ;  love  led  him  up  to  the  cross  !  He 
died  as  the  sinner  s  substitute.  He  died 
to  make  it  a  righteous  thing  in  God  to  can- 
cel the  sinner's  guilt  and  annul  the  penalty 
of  his  everlasting  death. 

Had  it  not  been  for  this  dying,  grace 


48  RIGHTEOUS  GRACE. 

• 

and  guilt  could  not  have  looked  each  other 
in  the  face  ;  God  and  the  sinner  could  not 
have  come  nigh  ;  righteousness  would  have 
forbidden  reconciliation ;  and  righteousness, 
we  know,  is  as  divine  and  real  a  thing  as 
love.  Without  this  expiation,  it  would 
not  have  been  right  for  God  to  receive 
the  sinner,  nor  safe  for  the  sinner  to 
come. 

But  now,  mercy  and  truth  have  met  to- 
gether (Psa.  lxxxv.  10) ;  now  grace  is  right- 
eousness, and  righteousness  is  grace.  This 
satisfies  the  sinner's  conscience,  by  shew- 
ing him  righteous  love,  for  the  unrighteous 
and  unloveable.  It  tells  him,  too,  that  the 
reconciliation  brought  about  in  this  way 
shall  never  be  disturbed,  either  in  this  life 
or  that  which  is  to  come.  It  is  righteous 
reconciliation,  and  will  stand  every  test,  as 
well  as  last  throughout  eternity.  The  peace 
of  conscience  thus  secured  will  be  trial- 
proof,  sickness-proof,  deathbed-proof,  judg- 
ment-proof.     Realising  this,  the   chief  of 


RIGHTEOUS  GRACE.  49 

sinners  can  say,  "  Who  is  he  that  con- 
demneth  V 

What  peace  for  the  stricken  conscience 
is  there  in  the  truth  that  Christ  died  for  the 
ungodly ;  and  that  it  is  of  the  ungodly 
that  the  righteous  God  is  the  Justifier  ! 
The  righteous  grace  thus  coming  to  us 
through  the  sin-bearing  work  of  the 
"  Word  made  flesh,"  tells  the  soul,  at  once 
and  for  ever,  that  there  can  be  no  condem- 
nation for  any  sinner  upon  earth,  who  will 
only  consent  to  be  indebted  to  this  free 
love  of  God,  which,  like  a  fountain  of  living 
water,  is  bursting  freely  forth  from  the 
foot  of  the  Cross. 

Just,  yet  the  Justifier  of  the  ungodly! 
What  glad  tidings  are  here !  Here  is 
GEACE  ;  God's  free  love  to  the  sinner ; 
divine  bounty  and  goodwill,  altogether  ir- 
respective of  human  worth  or  merit.  For 
this  is  the  scriptural  meaning  of  that  often 
misunderstood  word  "grace." 

This  righteous  free  love  has  its  origin  in 


50  RIGHTEOUS  GRACE. 

the  bosom  of  the  Father,  where  the  only- 
begotten  has  his  dwelling  (John  i.  18).  It 
is  not  produced  by  anything  out  of  God 
himself.  It  was  man's  evil,  not  his  good, 
that  called  it  forth.  It  was  not  the  like 
drawing  to  the  like,  but  to  the  unlike ; 
it  was  light  attracted  by  darkness,  and  life 
by  death.  It  does  not  wait  for  our  seek- 
ing, it  comes  unasked  as  well  as  un- 
deserved. It  is  not  our  faith  that  creates 
it  or  calls  it  up  ;  our  faith  realises  it  as 
already  existing  in  its  divine  and  manifold 
fulness.  Whether  we  believe  it  or  not, 
this  righteous  grace  exists,  and  exists  for 
us.  Unbelief  refuses  it ;  but  faith  takes 
it,  rejoices  in  it,  and  lives  upon  it.  Yes, 
faith  takes  this  righteous  grace  of  God, 
and,  with  it,  a  righteous  pardon,  a  right- 
eous salvation,  and  a  righteous  heirship  of 
the  everlasting  glory. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  BLOOD  OF  8FRINKLING. 

Gen.  iii.  15.  Lev.  i.  «.  Dan.  ix.  24. 

..    iv.  4.  ..    xri.  15-19.  John  i.  29. 

Exod.  xii.  7-13.  Isa.  liii.  5.  Gal.  iiL  13. 

But  an  inquirer  asks,  What  is  the  special 
meaning  of  the  blood,  of  which  we  read 
so  much  ?  How  does"  it  speak  peace  ? 
How  does  it  "purge  the  conscience  from 
dead  works"  (Heb.  ix.  14)?  What  can 
blood  have  to  do  with  the  peace,  the 
grace,  and  the  righteousness  of  which  we 
have  been  speaking  ? 

God  has  given  the  reason  for  the  stress 
which  he  lays  upon  the  blood  ;  and,  in 
understanding  this,  we  get  to  the  very 
bottom  of  the  grounds  of  a  sinners  peace. 


52  THE  BLOOD  OP  SPRINKLINJ. 

The  sacrifices  of  old,  from  the  days  of 
Abel  downward,  furnish  us  with  the  key 
to  the  meaning  of  the  blood,  and  explain 
the  necessity  for  its  being  "shed  for  the 
remission  of  sins."  "  Not  without  blood  " 
(Heb.  ix.  7)  was  the  great  truth  taught  by 
God  from  the  beginning  ;  the  inscription 
which  may  be  said  to  have  been  written 
on  the  gates  of  tabernacle  and  temple. 
For  more  than  two  thousand  years,  during 
the  ages  of  the  patriarchs,  there  was  but 
one  great  sacrifice, — the  burnt-offering. 
This,  under  the  Mosaic  service,  was  split 
into  parts, — the  peace*offering,  trespass- 
offering,  sin-offering,  &c.  In  all  of  these, 
however,  the  essence  of  the  original  burnt- 
offering  was  preserved, — by  the  blood  and 
the  fire,  which  were  common  to  them  all. 
The  blood,  as  the  emblem  of  substitution, 
and  the  fire,  as  the  symbol  of  God's  wrath 
upon  the  substitute,  were  seen  in  all  the 
parts  of  Israel's  service  ;  but  specially  in 
the  daily  burnt-offering,  the  morning  and 


THE  BLOOD  OF  SPRINKLING.  53 

evening  lamb,  which  was  the  true  con- 
tinuation and  representative  of  the  old 
patriarchal  burnt- offering.  It  was  to  this 
that  John  referred  when  he  said,  "  Behold 
the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the 
sin  of  the  world,"  (John  i.  29).  Israel's 
daily  lamb  was  the  kernel  and  core  of  all 
the  Old  Testament  sacrifices  ;  and  it  was 
its  blood  that  carried  them  back  to  the 
primitive  sacrifices,  and  forward  to  the 
blood  of  sprinkling  that  was  to  speak 
better  things  than  that  of  Abel,  (Heb.  xii. 
26). 

In  all  these  sacrifices  the  shedding  of  the 
blood  was  the  infliction  of  death.  The 
"blood  was  the  life,"  (Lev.  xvii.  11,14; 
Deut.  xii.  23)  ;  and  the  pouring  out  of  the 
blood  was  "  the  pouring  out  of  the  soul" 
(Isa.  liii.  12).  This  blood-shedding  or  life- 
taking  was  the  payment  of  the  penalty  for 
sin  ;  for  it  was  threatened  from  the  begin- 
ning, "  In  the  day  thou  eatest  thereof  thou 
slialfc  surely  die  "  (Gen.  ii.   17) ;  and  it  is 

E  2 


54  THE  BLOOD  OF  SPRINKLING* 

written,  "The  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die" 
(Ezek.  xviii.  3)  ;  and  again,  "  The  wages  of 
sin  is  death  "  (Rom.  vi.  23). 

But  the  blood-shedding  of  Israel's  sacri- 
fices could  not  take  sin  away.  '  It  shewed 
the  way  in  which  this  was  to  be  done,  but 
it  was  in  fact  more  a*  "  remembrance  of 
sins  "  (Heb.  x.  3),  than  an  expiation  (Heb. 
x.  11).  It  said  life  must  be  given  for  life, 
ere  sin  can  be  pardoned  ;  but  then  the 
continual  repetition  of  the  sacrifices  shewed 
that  there  was  needed '"  richer  blood  "  than 
Moriah's  altar  was  ever  sprinkled  with, 
and  a  more  precious  life  than  man  could 
give. 

The  great  blood-shedding  has  been  ac- 
complished ;  the  better  life  has  been  pre- 
sented ;  and  the  one  death  of  the  Son 
of  God  has  done  what  all  the  deaths  of  old 
could  never  do.  His  one  life  was  enough  ; 
his  one  dying  paid  the  penalty ;  and  God 
does  not  ask  two  lives,  or  two  deaths,  or 
two  payments.     "  Christ  was  once  offered 


THE  BLOOD  OF  SPRINKLING.  55 

to  bear  the  sins  of  many,"  (Heb.  ix.  28). 
"  In  that  lie  died,  he  died  unto  sin  once  " 
(Rom.  vi.  10).  He  "  offered  one  sacrifice 
for  sins  for  ever,"  (Heb.  x.  12). 

The  "  sprinkling  of  the  blood"  (Ex.  xxiv. 
8),  was  the  making  use  of  the  death,  by 
putting  it  upon  certain  persons  or  things, 
so  that  these  persons  or  things  were  counted 
to  be  dead,  and,  therefore,  to  have  paid  the 
law's  penalty.  So  long  as  they  had  not 
paid  that  penalty,  they  were  counted  un- 
clean and  unfit  for  God  to  look  upon  ;  but 
as  soon  as  they  had  paid  it,  they  were 
counted  clean  and  fit  for  the  service  of  God. 
Usually  when  we  read  of  cleansing,  we 
think*merely  of  our  common  process  of  re- 
moving stains  by  water  and  soap.  But 
this  is  not  the  figure  meant  in  the  applica- 
tion of  the  sacrifice.  The  blood  cleanses, 
not  like  the  prophet's  "nitre  and  much 
soap "  (Jer.  ii.  22),  but  by  making  us  par- 
takers of  the  death  of  the  Substitute.  For 
what  is  it  that  makes  us  filthy  before  God? 


56  THE  BLOOD  OF  SPRINKLING. 

It  is  our  guilt,  our  breach  of  law,  and  our 
being  under  sentence  of  death  in  conse- 
quence of  our  disobedience.  We  have  not 
only  done  what  God  dislikes,  but  what  his 
righteous  law  declares  to  be  worthy  of 
death.  It  is  this  sentence  of  death  that 
separates  us  so  completely  from  God,  mak- 
ing it  wrong  for  him  to  bless  us,  and  peril- 
ous for  us  to  go  to  him. 

When  thus  covered  all  over  with  that 
guilt  whose  penalty  is  death,  the  blood  is 
brought  in  by  the  great  High  Priest.  That 
blood  represents  death  ;  it  is  God's  expres- 
sion for  death.  It  is  then  sprinkled  on  us, 
and  thus  death,  which  is  the  law's  penalty, 
passes  on  us.  We  die.  We  undergo  the 
sentence  ;  and  thus  the  guilt  passes  away. 
We  are  cleansed  !  The  sin  which  was  like 
scarlet  becomes  as  snow ;  and  that  which 
was  like  crimson  becomes  as  wool.  It  is 
thus  that  we  make  use  of  the  blood  of 
Christ  in  believing;  for  faith  is  just  the 
sinner's  employing  the  blood.     Believing 


THE  BLOOD  OF  SPEINKLING.  57 

what  God  lias  testified  concerning  this 
blood,  we  become  one  with  Jesus  in  his 
death  ;  and  thus  we  are  counted  in  law, 
and  treated  by  God,  as  men  who  have  paid 
the  whole  penalty,  and  so  been  "  washed 
from  their  sins  in  his  blood  "  (Rev.  i.  5).* 

Such  are  the  glad  tidings  of  life,  through 
him  who  died.  They  are  tidings  which 
tell  us,  not  what  we  are  to  do,  in  order  to 
be  saved,  but  what  He  has  done.  This 
only  can  lay  to  rest  the  sinner's  fears ;  can 
"purge  his  conscience;"  can  make  him  feel 
as  a  thoroughly  pardoned  man.  The  right 
knowledge  of  God's  meaning  in  this  sprink- 
ling of  the  blood,  is  the  only  effectual  way 

*  It  is  interesting  to  notice,  in  connection  with  this 
point,  that  the  old  Scotch  terms  in  law  for  acquitting 
and  condemning  were  "  cleanse*'  and  "  fyle"  (that  is, 
defile).  In  the  assize  held  upon  the  faithful  ministers 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  1>06,  it  was  put  to  the 
court  whether  these  said  ministers  should  be  "clenzed" 
or  ''fyled,'"  and  the  chancellor  "declared  that  they 
were  fyled  by  maniest  votes  "  (See  Caldeewood,  voL 
vL  p.  388). 


58  THE  BLOOD  OF  SPRINKLING. 

of  removing  the  anxieties  of  the  troubled 
soul,  and  introducing  him  into  perfect 
peace. 

The  gospel  is  not  the  mere  revelation  of 
the  heart  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  In  it 
the  righteousness  of  God  is  specially  mani- 
fested (Rom.  i.  17)  ;  and  it  is  this  revela- 
tion of  the  righteousness  that  makes  it  so 
truly  "  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation," 
(Rom.  i.  16).  The  bloodshedding  is  Gods 
declaration  of  the  righteousness  of  the  love 
which  he  is  pouring  down  upon  the  sons  of 
men ;  it  is  the  reconciliation  of  law  and 
love  ;  the  condemnation  of  the  sin  and  the 
acquittal  of  the  sinner.  As  "  without  shed- 
ding of  blood  there  is  no  remission  "  (Heb. 
ix.  22)  ;  so  the  gospel  announces  that  the 
blood '  has  been  shed  by  which  remission 
flows  ;  and  now  we  know  that  "the  Son  of 
God  is  come"  (1  John  v.  20),  and  that  "  the 
blood  of  Christ  cleanses  us  from  all  sin," 
(1  John  i.  7).  The  conscience  is  satisfied. 
It   feels    that    God's    grace    is    righteous 


THE  BLGOD  OF  SPRINKLING.  59 

grace,  that  his  love  is  holy  love.     There  it 
rests. 

It  is  not  by  incarnation  but  by  blood- 
shedding  that  we  are  saved.  The  Christ 
of  God  is  no  mere  expounder  of  wisdom;  no 
mere  deliverer  or  gracious  benefactor  ;  and 
they  who  think  that  they  have  told  the  whole 
gospel,  when  they  have  spoken  of  Jesus 
revealing  the  love  of  God,  do  greatly  err. 
If  Christ  be  not  the  Substitute,  he  is 
nothing  to  the  sinner.  If  he  did  not  die 
as  the  Sinbearer,  he  has  died  in  vain.  Let 
us  not  be  deceived  on  this  point,  nor  mis- 
led by  those  who,  when  they  announce 
Christ  as  the  Deliverer,  think  they  have 
preached  the  gospel.  If  I  throw  a  rope  to 
a  drowning  man,  I  am  a  deliverer.  But  is 
Christ  no  more  than  that  ?  If  I  cast  my- 
self into  the  sea,  and  risk  my  life  to  save 
another,  I  am  a  deliverer.  But  is  Christ 
no  more  1  Did  he  but  risk  his  life  ?  The 
very  essence  of  Christ's  deliverance  is  the 
.'ubstitutien  of  Himself  for  us,  his  life  for 


(JO  THE  BLOOD  OF  SPRINKLING. 

ours.  He  did  not  come  to  risk  his  life  ;  he 
came  to  die  !  He  did  not  redeem  us  by  a 
little  loss,  a  little  sacrifice,  a  little  labour,  a 
little  suffering,  "  He  redeemed  us  to  God 
by  his  blood,"  (Rev.  v.  9)  ;  "  the  precious 
blood  of  Christ,"  (1  Pet.  i.  18).  He  gave 
all  he  had,  even  his  life,  for  us.  This 
is  the  kind  of  deliverance  that  awakens 
the  happy  song,  "To  him  that  loved  us, 
and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own 
blood." 

The  tendency  of  the  world's  religion  just 
now  is,  to  reject  the  blood  ;  and  to  glory  in  a 
gospel  which  needs  no  sacrifice,  no  "  Lamb 
slain."  Thus,  they  go  "  in  the  way  of 
Cain,"  (Jude  11).  Cain  refused  the  blood, 
and  came  to  God  without  it.  He  would 
not  own  himself  a  sinner,  condemned  to 
die,  and  needing  the  death  of  another  to 
save  him.  This  was  man's  open  rejection 
of  God's  own  way  of  life.  Foremost  in  this 
rejection  of,  what  is  profanely  called  by  some 
scoffers,  "\he  religion  of  the  shambles."  we 


THE  BLOOD  OF  SPRINKLING.  31 

see  the  first  murderer  ;  and  lie  who  would 
not  defile  his  altar  with  the  blood  of  as. 
lamb,  pollutes  the  earth  with  his  brother's, 
blood. 

The  heathen  altars  have  been  red  with: 
blood  ;  and  to  this  day  they  are  the  same. 
But  these  worshippers  know  not  what  they 
mean,  in  bringing  that  blood.  It  is  asso- 
ciated only  with  vengeance  in  their  minds  ; 
and  they  shed  it,  to  appease  the  vengeance 
of  their  gods.  But  this  is  no  recognition 
either  of  the  love  or  the  righteousness  of 
God.  "  Fury  is  not  in  him  ;"  whereas  their 
altars  speak  only  of  fury.  The  blood  which 
they  bring  is  a  denial  both  of  righteousness^ 
and  grace. 

But   look  at   Israel's   altars...   There   is- 

blood ;    and  they  who  bring  it  know  the' 

God  to  whom  they  come.     They  bring  itr 

in   acknowledgment    of    their   own   guilt,. 

but  also  of  his  pardoning  love.     They  say,. 

"  I  deserve  death  ;  but  let  this  death  stand* 

for  mine  ;  and  let  the  love  which  otherwise 

F 

k 


62  THE  BLOOD  OF  SPRINKLING. 

could  not  reach  me,  by  reason  of  guilt,  now 
pour  itself  out  on  me." 

Inquiring  soul !  Beware  of  Cain's  error 
on  the  one  hand,  in  coming  to  God  without 
blood  ;  and  beware  of  the  heathen  error  on 
the  other,  in  mistaking  the  meaning  of  the 
blood.  Understand  God's  mind  and  mean- 
ing, in  "the  precious  blood"  of  his  Son. 
Believe  his  testimony  concerning  it ;  so 
shall  thy  conscience  be  pacified,  and  thy 
soul  find  rest. 

It  is  into  Christ's  death  that  we  are 
baptized  (Rom.  vi.  3),  and  hence  the  cross, 
which  was  the  instrument  of  that  death,  is 
that  in  which  we  "  glory,"  (Gal.  vi.  4).  The 
cross  is  to  us  the  payment  of  the  sinner's 
penalty,  the  extinction  of  the  debt,  and  the 
tearing  up  of  the  bond  or  hand-writing 
which  was  against  us.  And  as  the  cross  is 
the  payment,  so  the  resurrection  is.  God's 
receipt  in  full,  for  the  whole  sum,  signed 
with  his  own  hand.  Our  faith  is  not  the 
completion  of  the  payment,  but  the  simple 


THE  BLOOD  OF  SPRINKLING.  63 

recognition  on  our  part  of  the  payment 
made  by  the  Son  of  God.  By  this  recogni- 
tion, we  become  so  one  with  Hirn  who  died 
and  rose,  that  we  are  henceforth  reckoned 
to  be  the  parties  who  have  paid  the  penalty, 
and  treated  as  if  it  were  we  ourselves  who 
had  died.  Thus  are  we  "justified  from  the 
sin,"*  and  then  made  partakers  of  the 
righteousness  of  him,  who  was  not  only 
delivered  for  our  offences,  but  who  rose 
again  for  our  justification. 

*  Rom.  vL  7.  Our  translation  is,  "  He  that  is  dead 
is  freed  from  sin."  But  the  word  "freed"  is  literally 
"justified."  The  passage  should  run  thus,  "  He  that 
dies  (and  so  exhausts  the  law's  penalty  and  claim)  is 
justified  (or  has  been  justified)  from  the  sin."  In  the 
terms  of  old  Scottish  jurisprudence,  "justify"  means 
to  suffer  the  penalty  of  the  law,  so  that  a  justified 
man  would  mean,  one  who  had  completed  Ids  term  of 
punishment,  and  so  was  free. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  PERSON  AND  WORK  OP  THE  SUBSTITUTE, 


Dent,  xviii.  15-19. 

Dan.  ix.  26. 

Rom.  viii.  34. 

Isa.  ix.  6. 

Zech.  ix.  9. 

Phil.  ii.  7,  8. 

...  liii.  8. 

John  i.  14. 

1  Tim.  iii  16. 

Jer.  xxiii.  6. 

Luke  i  .  18. 

Heb.  xiii.  12. 

Life  comes  to  us  through  death ;  and  thus 
grace  abounds  towards  us  in  righteousness. 
This  we  have  seen  in  a  general  way.  But 
we  have  something  more  to  learn  concern- 
ing him  who  lived  and  died  as  the  sinner's 
substitute.  The  more  that  we  know  of  his 
person  and  his  work,  the  more  shall  we  be 
satisfied,  in  heart  and  conscience,  with  the 
provision  which  God  has  made  for  our  great 
need 
i    Our  sin-bearer  is  the  Son  of  God,  the 


THE  PERSON  AND  WORK  OF  THE  SUBSTITUTE.    65 

eternal  Son  of  the  Father.  Of  him  it  is 
written,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word, 
and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the 
Word  was  God,"  (John  i.  1).  He  is  "the 
brightness  of  his  giory,  and  the  express 
image  of  his  person,"  (Heb.  L  3).  He  is 
"  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  him " 
(John  xiv.  11);  "the  Father  dwelleth  in 
him"  (John  xiv.  9,  10);  "he  that  hath 
seen  him  hath  seen  the  Father;"  and  "he 
that  heareth  him,  heareth  him  that  sent 
him"  He  is  "the  Word  made  flesh" 
(John  i.  14)  ;  "  God  manifest  in  flesh " 
(1  Tim.  iii.  16) ;  "  Jesus  the  Christ,  who 
has  come  in  the  flesh"  (1  John  iv.  2,  3). 
His  name  is  "  Immanuel,"  God  with  us  (Isa. 
vii.  14 ;  Matt.  i.  23) ;  Jesus,  the  "Saviour" 
(Matt.  i.  21) ;  "Christ,"  the  anointed  One, 
filled  with  the  Spirit  without  measure  (John 
iii.  34)  ;  "  the  only-begotten  of  the  Father, 
full  of  grace  and  truth  "  (John  i.  14). 

He  came  preaching  the  gospel  of  the 
kingdom,  that  is,  the  good  news  about  the 

F2 


6Q  THE  PERSON  AND  WORK 

kingdom  (Mark  i.  14) ;  teaching  the  mul- 
titudes that  gathered  round  him  (Mark 
iv.  1) ;  healing  the  sick,  opening  the  eyes 
of  the  blind,  and  raising  the  dead  (Matt., 
iv.  23,  24?)  ;  "  receiving  sinners,  and  eating 
with  them"  (Luke  xv.  2).  "He  came  to 
seek  and  save  that  which  was  lost "  (Luke 
xix.  10) ;  he  went  about  speaking  words  of 
grace  such  as  never  man  spake,  saying, 
"  I  am  the  Way,  and  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life :  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father, 
but  by  me"  (John  xiv.  6).  He  went  out 
and  in  as  THE  Saviouk  ;  and  in  his  whole 
life  we  see  him  as  the  Shepherd  seeking 
his  lost  sheep,  as  the  woman  her  lost  piece 
of  silver,  and  as  the  father  looking  out  for 
his  lost  son.  He  is  "  mighty  to  save"  (Isa. 
lxiii.  1)  ;  he  is  "  able  to  save  to  the  utter- 
most "  (Heb.  vii.  25) ;  he  came  to  be  "  the 
Saviour  of  the  world"  (1  John  iv.  14). 

In  all  these  things  thus  written  con- 
cerning Jesus,  there  are  good  news  for  the 
ginner ;  such  as  should  draw  him,  in  simple 


OF  THE  SUBSTITUTE.  67 

confidence,  to  God  ;  making  him  feel  that 
his  case  has  really  been  taken  up  in  ear- 
nest by  God ;  and  that  God's  thoughts 
toward  him  are  thoughts,  not  of  anger, 
but  of  peace  and  grace.  Heaven  has  come 
down  to  earth  !  There  is  goodwill  toward 
man.  He  is  not  to  be  handed  over  to  his 
great  enemy.  God  has  taken  his  side,  and 
stepped  in  between  him  and  Satan.  This 
world  is  not  to  be  burned  up,  nor  its 
dwellers  made  eternal  exiles  from  God ! 
The  darkness  is  passing  away,  and  the  true 
light  is  shining! 

Yet  it  is  not  the  person  of  Christ,  nor 
his  birth,  nor  his  life,  that  can  suffice. 
That  the  Son  of  God  took  a  true  but  sin- 
less humanity  of  the  very  substance  of  the 
virgin ;  becoming  bone  of  our  bone,  and 
flesh  of  our  flesh ;  being  in  very  deed 
the  woman's  seed  ;  that  he  dwelt  among 
us  for  a  lifetime,  is  but  the  beginning  of 
the  good  news ;  the  Alpha,  but  not  the 
Omega.     This  was  shewn  to  Israel,  and  to 


68  THE  PERSON  AND  WORK 

us  also,  in  the  temple  veil.  That  veil  was 
the  type  of  his  flesh  (Heb.  x.  20) ;  and,  so 
long  as  that  curtain  remained  whole,  there 
was  no  entrance  into  the  near  presence  of 
God.  The  worshipper  was  not  indeed  frowned 
upon ;  but  he  had  to  stand  afar  off.  The 
veil  said  to  the  sinner,  Godhead  is  within ; 
but  it  also  said,  You  cannot  enter  till  some- 
thing more  has  been  done.  The  Holy- 
Ghost,  by  it,  signified  that  the  way  into  the 
Holiest  was  not  yet  open.  The  rending  of 
the  veil ;  that  is,  the  crucifixion  of  "  the 
"Word  made  flesh,"  opened  the  way  com- 
pletely. 

Hence  it  is  that  the  Holy  Spirit  sums 
up  the  good  news  in  one  or  two  special 
points.  They  are  these  :  Christ  was  cruci- 
fied. Christ  died.  Christ  was  buried. 
Christ  rose  again  from  the  dead.  Christ 
went  up  on  high.  Christ  sits  at  God's 
right  hand,  our  "  Advocate  with  the  Father" 
(1  John  ii.  1),  "  ever  living  to  make  inter- 
cession for  us"  (Rom.  viii.  24,  Heb.  vii.  25). 


OF  THE  SUBSTITUTE.  69 

These  are  the  great  facts  which  contain 
the  good  news.  They  are  few  and  they 
are  plain ;  so  that  a  child  may  remember 
and  understand  them.  They  are  the  cas- 
kets which  contain  the  heavenly  gems. 
They  are  the  cups  which  hold  the  living 
water  for  the  thirsty  soul ;  the  golden 
baskets  in  which  God  has  placed  the  bread 
of  life,  the  true  bread  which  came  down 
from  heaven,  of  which  if  a  man  eat  he  shall 
never  die.  They  are  the  volumes  in  whose 
brief  but  blessed  pages  are  written  the  re- 
cords of  God's  mighty  mercy ;  records  so 
simple  that  even  the  "fool"  may  read  and 
comprehend  them  ;  so  true  and  sure  that 
all  the  wisdom  of  the  world,  and  all  the 
wiles  of  hell,  cannot  shake  their  certainty. 

The  knowledge  of  these  is  salvation. 
On  them  we  rest  our  confidence ;  for  they 
are  the  revelation  of  the  name  of  God  ; 
and  it  is  written,  "  They  that  know  thy 
name  will  put  their  trust  in  thee"  (Ps. 
ix.  10). 


70  THE  PERSON  AND  WORK 

Let  us  listen  to  apostolic  preaching,  and 
see  how  these'  facts  form  the  heads  of 
primitive  sermons  ;  sermons  such  as  Peter's 
at  Jerusalem,  or  Paul's  at  Corinth  and 
Antioch.  Peter's  sermon  at  Jerusalem 
(Acts  ii.  29-36)  was  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
who  was  crucified,  had  been  raised  from 
the  dead  and  exalted  to  the  throne  of  God, 
being  made  both  Lord  and  Christ.  This 
the  apostle  declared  to  be  "good  news." 
Paul's  sermon  at  Antioch  was,  in  substance 
the  same, — a  statement  of  the  facts  re- 
garding the  death  and  resurrection  of 
Jesus  ;  and  the  application  of  that  sermon 
was  in  these  words,  "Be  it  known  unto 
you,  men  and  brethren,  that  through  this 
man  is  preached  unto  you  the  forgiveness 
of  sins  :  and  by  him  all  that  believe  are 
justified,"  (Acts  xiii.  38,  39).  His  sermon 
at  Corinth  was  very  similar.  He  gives  us 
the  following  sketch  of  it :  "  Moreover, 
brethren,  I  declare  unto  you  the  gospel 
which  I  preached  unto  you,  which  also  ye 


OF  THE  SUBSTITUTE.  71 

have  received,  and  wherein  ye  stand ;  by 
which  also  ye  are  saved,  if  ye  keep  in 
memory  what  I  preached  unto  you.  For  I 
delivered  unto  you  first  of  all  that  which 
I  also  received,  how  that  Christ  died  for 
our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures  ;  and 
that  he  was  buried,  and  that  he  rose 
again  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures," (1  Cor.  xv.   1-4.)     Then  he  adds : 

"  SO  WE  PREACH,  AND  SO  TE  BELIEVED," 

(verse  11.) 

Such  was  apostolic  preaching.  Such  was 
Paul's  gospel.  It  narrated  a  few  facts  re- 
specting Christ ;  adding  the  evidence  of 
their  truth  and  certainty,  that  all  who 
heard  might  believe  and  be  saved.  In 
these  facts  the  free  love  of  God  to  sinners 
is  announced ;  and  the  great  salvation  is 
revealed.  It  is  this  gospel  which  is  "  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one 
that  believeth.  For  therein  is  the  right- 
eousness of  God  revealed  from  faith  to 
faith,"  (Rom.  i.  16,  17).     Its  burden  was 


72  THE  TERSON  AND  WORK 

not,  "  Do  this  or  do  that ;  labour  and  pray, 
and  use  the  means  ;" — that  is  l%w,  not  gos- 
pel : — but  Christ  has  done  all !  He  did 
it  all  when  he  was  "  delivered  for  our 
offences,  and  raised  again  for  our  justifica- 
tion," (Rom.  iv.  25.)  He  did  it  all  when 
he  "  made  peace  by  the  blood  of  his  cross," 
(Col.  i.  20).  "  It  is  finished,"  (John  xix. 
30).  His  doing  is  so  complete  that  it  has 
left  nothing  for  us  to  do.  We  have  but  to 
enter  into  the  joy  of  knowing  that  all  is 
done  !  "  This  is  the  record,  that  God  hath 
given  to  us  eternal  life  ;  and  this  life  is  in 
his  Son,"  (Uohnv.  11). 

But  let  us  gather  together  some  of  the 
"true  sayings  of  God"  concerning  Christ 
and  his  work.  In  these  we  shall  find  the 
divine  interpretation  of  the  facts  above 
referred  to.  We  shall  see  the  meaning 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  attaches  to  these, 
and  so  our  faith  shall  not  "  stand  in  the 
wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God," 
(1  Cor.  ii  5).     It  was  in  this  way  that  the 


US  THE  SUBSTITUTE.  73 

Lord  himself,  ere  ha  left  the  earth,  removed 
the  unbelief  of  the  doubters  around  him. 
He  reminded  them  of  the  written  word, 
"  Thus  it  is  written,  and  thus  it  behoved 
(the)  Christ  to  suffer  and  to  rise  from  the 
dead  the  third  day  ;  and  that  repentance 
and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in 
his  name,  among  all  nations,  beginning  at 
Jerusalem,"  (Luke  xxiv.  46). 

Hear,  then,  the  word  of  the  Lord  !  For 
heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but 
these  words  shall  not  pass  away.  "  Who 
was  delivered  for  our  offences,  and  raised 
again  for  our  justification,"  (Rom.  iv.  25). 
"  God  hath  not  appointed  us  to  wrath,  but 
to  obtain  salvation  by  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  died  for  us,  that,  whether  we 
wake  or  sleep,  we  should  live  together  with 
him,"  (1  Thess.  v.  9,  10).  "  By  the  which 
will  we  are  sanctified,  through  the  offer- 
ing of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  once 
for  all,"  (Heb.  x.  10).  "  In  due  time  Christ 
died  for  the  ungodly,"  (Rom.  v.  6).     "  It  is 


74  THE  PERSON  AND  WORK 

Christ  that  died,  yea  rather,  that  is  risen 
again,  who  is  even  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,  who  also  maketh  intercession  for  us," 
(Rom  viii.  34).  "  Who  gave  himself  for 
our  sins,"  (Gal.  i.  4).  "Christ  hath  redeemed 
us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  being  made 
a  curse  for  us,"  (Gal.  iii.  13).  "In  whom 
we  have  redemption  through  his  blood,  the 
forgiveness  of  sins,  according  to  the  riches 
of  his  grace,"  (Eph.  i.  7).  "  He  humbled 
himself  and  became  obedient  unto  death, 
even  the  death  of  the  cross,"  (Phil.  ii.  8). 
"  Remember  that  Jesus  Christ,  of  the  seed 
of  David,  was  raised  from  the  dead,  accord- 
ing to  my  gospel,"  (2  Tim.  ii.  8).  "Who 
gave  himself  for  us,"  (Titus  ii.  14).  "  Christ 
was  once  offered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many," 
(Heb.  ix.  28).  "  Jesus  also,  that  he  might 
sanctify  the  people  with  his  own  blood,  suf- 
fered without  the  gate,"  (Heb.  xiii.  12). 
"  Christ  also  suffered  for  us/'  (1  Pet.  ii.  21). 
"Who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  his  own 
body  on  the  tree?/'  (1  Pet.  ii.  24).     "Christ 


OF  THE  SUBSTITUTE.  75 

also  hath  once  suffered  for  sins,  the  just 
for  the  unjust,"  (1  Pet.  iii.  18).  "  Christ 
hath  suffered  for  us  in  the  flesh,"  (1  Pet. 
iv.  1).  "  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins,"  (1  John  ii.  2).  "  Unto  him  that  loved 
us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own 
blood"  (Rev.  i.  5).  "  I  am  He  that  liveth 
and  was  dead,  and  behold  I  am  alive  for 
evermore"  (Rev.  i.  18).  "  Thou  wast  slain, 
and  hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by  thy 
blood,"  (Rev.  v.  9). 

These  are  all  divine  truths  written  in 
divine  words.  These  sayings  are  faithful 
and  true  ;  they  come  from  Him  that  cannot 
lie  ;  and  they  are  as  true,  in  these  last  days, 
as  they  were  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  ; 
for  "  the  word  of  our  God  shall  stand  for 
ever,"  (Isa.  xl.  8  ;  1  Pet.  i.  25).  In  them  we 
find  the  authentic  exposition  of  the  facts 
which  the  apostles  preached  ;  and  in  that 
we  learn  the  glad  tidings  concerning  the 
way  in  which  salvation  from  a  righteous 
God  has  come  to  unrighteous  man.     Jesus 


76  THE  PERSON  AND  WORK 

died  !  That  is  the  paying  of  the  debt, 
the  endurance  of  the  penalty  ;  the  death  for 
death!  He  was  buried.  That  is  the 
proof  that  his  death  was  a  true  death, 
needing  a  tomb  as  we  do.  He  rose  again. 
This  is  God's  declaration  that  he,  the 
righteous  Judge,  is  satisfied  with  the  pay- 
ment, no  less  than  with  him  who  made  it. 

Could  there  be  better,  gladder  news  to 
the  sinner  than  these  ?  What  more  can  h§ 
ask  to  satisfy  him,  than  that  which  has  so 
fully  satisfied  the  holy  Lord  God  of  earth 
and  heaven  ?  If  this  will  not  avail,  then 
he  can  expect  no  more.  If  this  is  not 
enough,  then  Christ  has  died  in  vain. 

God  has  thus  "  brought  near  his  right- 
eousness," (Isa  xlvi.  13).  We  do  not  need 
to  go  up  to  heaven  for  it ;  that  would  im- 
ply that  Christ  had  never  come  down. 
Nor  do  we  need  to  go  down  to  the  depths 
of  the  earth  for  it ;  that  would  say  that 
Christ  had  never  been  buried  and  never 
risen.     It  is  near.     It  is  as  near  as  is  the 


OF  THE  SUBSTITUTE.  77 

word  concerning  it,  which  enters  into  our 
ears  (Rom.  x.  10).  We  do  not  need  to 
exert  ourselves  to  bring  it  near ;  nor  to  do 
any  thing  to  attract  it  towards  us.  It  is 
already  so  near,  so  very  near,  that  we  can- 
not bring  it  closer.  If  we  try  to  get  up 
warm  feelings  and  good  dispositions  in 
order  to  remove  some  fancied  remainder  of 
distance,  we  shall  fail ;  not  simply  because 
these  actings  of  ours  cannot  do  what  we 
are  trying  to  do,  but  because  there  is  no 
need  of  any  such  effort.  The  thing  is  done 
already.  God  has  brought  his  righteous- 
ness nigh  to  the  sinner.  The  office  of  faith 
is  not,  to  work,  but  to  cease  working  ;  not 
to  do  any  thing,  but  to  own  that  all  is  done; 
not  to  bring  near  the  righteousness,  but  to 
rejoice  in  it  as  already  near.  This  is  "  the 
Word  of  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL,"  (Col 

L5). 


g2 


CHAPTEK  VII. 


?  HE  WORD  OF  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 


Psa.  xxxvi.  5-9.  Ezek.  xxxiv.  16.        John  iii.  16. 

. .    lxxxvi  5-15.        Micah  vii.  18.  2  Cor.  v.  18-19. 

Isa.  xii.  1-3.  Luke  ii.  9-14.  1  Tim.  i.  11-16. 


How  shall  I  come  before  God,  and  stand 
in  his  presence,  with  happy  confidence  on 
my  part,  and  gracious  acceptance  on  his  ? 

This  is  the  sinner's  question ;  and  he  asks 
it  because  he  knows  that  there  is  guilt  be- 
tween him  and  God.  No  doubt  this  wa8 
Adam's  question  when  he  stitched  his  fig- 
leaves  together  for  a  covering.  Bat  he  was 
soon  made  to  feel  that  the  fig-leaves  would 
not  do.  He  must  be  wholly  covered,  not 
in  part  only ;  and  that  by  something  which 
even  God's  eye  cannot  see  through.    As  God 


THE  WORD  OF  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.      79 

comes  near,  the  uselessness  of  his  fig-leaves 
is  felt,  and  he  rushes  into  the  thick  foliage 
of  Paradise  to  hide  from  the  Divine  eye. 
The  Lord  approaches  the  trembling  man, 
and  makes  him  feel  that  this  hiding-place 
will  not  do.  Then  he  begins  to  tell  him 
what  will  do.  He  announces  a  better  cover- 
ing and  a  better  hiding-place.  He  reveals 
himself  as  the  God  of  grace,  the  God  who 
hates  sin,  yet  who  takes  the  sinner's  side 
against  the  sinner's  enemy, — the  old  serpent. 
And  all  this  through  the  seed  of  the  woman 
— "the  man"  who  is  the  true  "hiding-place," 
(Isa.  xxxii.  2).  Adam  can  now  leave  his 
thicket  safely ;  and  feel  that,  in  this  revealed 
grace, he  can," stand"  (Rom.  v.  2)  before  God 
without  fear  or  shame.  He  has  heard  the 
good  news  ;  and  brief  as  they  are,  they  have 
restored  his  confidence  and  removed  his 
alarm. 

Let  us  hear  the  good  news,  and  let  .us 
hear  them  as  Adam  did, — from  the  lips  of 
God  himself.     For  that  which  is  revealed 


80  •      THE  WORD  OF  THE 

for  our  belief  is  set  before  us  on  God's 
authority,  not  on  man's.  We  are  not  only 
to  believe  tlie  truth,  but  we  are  to  believe 
it  because  God  has  spoken  it  Faith  must 
have  a  divine  foundation. 

We  gather  together  a  few  of  these  divine 
announcements ;  asking  the  anxious  soul 
to  study  them  as  divine.  Nor  let  him  say 
that  he  knows  them  already ;  but  let  him 
accept  our  invitation,  to  traverse,  along  with 
us,  the  field  of  gospel  statement.  It  is  of 
God  himself  that  we  must  learn  ;  and  it  is 
only  by  listening  to  the  very  words  of  God 
that  we  shall  arrive  at  the  true  knowledge 
of  what  the  gospel  is.  His  own  words  are 
the  truest,  the  simplest,  and  the  best. 
They  are  not  only  the  likeliest  to  meet  our 
case  ;  but  they  are  the  words  which  he  has 
promised  to  honour  and  to  bless. ' 

Let  us  hear,  then,  the  words  of  God  as 
to  his  own  "grace,"  or  "free-love,"  or 
"  mercy."  "  The  Lord  passed  by  before 
him,  and  proclaimed,  the  Lord,  the  Lord 


TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  81 

God,  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffer- 
ing, and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth, 
keeping  mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving 
iniquity,  and  transgression,  and  sin," 
(Exod  xxxiv.  G,  7).  "The  Lord  is  long- 
suffering  and  of  great  mercy"  (Num.  xiv. 
18).  "His  mercies  are  great"  (2  Sam. 
xxiv.  14).  "  The  Lord  your  God  is  gracious 
and  merciful"  (2  Chron.  xxx.  9).  "  Thou 
art  a  God  ready  to  pardon,  gracious  and 
merciful"  (Neh.  ix.  17).  "His  mercy  en- 
durethfor  evev"  (1  Chron.  xvi.  34).  " Thou, 
Lord,  art  good,  and  ready  to  forgive,  and 
plenteous  in  mercy  unto  all  them  that 
call  upon  thee,"  (Psa.  lxxxvi.  5)  ;  "  thou  art 
a  God  full  of  compassion,  and  gracious, 
long-suffering,  and  plenteous  in  mercy 
and  truth,"  (Psa.  lxxxvi.  15);  "  thy  mercy 
is  great  unto  the  heavens,"  (Psa.  lvii.  10) ; 
"  thy  mercy  is  great  above  the  heavens," 
(Psa.  cviii.  4)  ;  "  his  tender  mercies  are 
over  all  his  works,"  (Psa.  cxlv.  9) ;  "  Who 
is  a  God  like  unto  thee,  that  pardonetk 


82  THE  WOHD  OF  THE 

iniquity  and  passeth  by  the  transgression 
of  the  remnant  of  his  heritage  ;  he  re- 
taineth  not  his  anger  for  ever,  because  he 
delighteth  in  mercy"  (Mic.  vii.  18)  ;  "I 
will  love  them  freely,"  (Hos.  xiv.  4)  ;  "  God 
so  loved  the  world,-  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son,  (John  iii.  16) ;  "  God  com- 
mendeth  his  love  towards  us,"  (Rom.  v.  8)  ; 
"  God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  for  the  great 
love  wherewith  he  hath  loved  us,  even 
when  we  were  dead  in  sins,"  (Eph.  ii.  4)  ; 
"the  kindness  and  love  of  God  our  Saviour 
toward  man,"  (Titus  iii.  4)  ;  "  according  to 
his  mercy  he  saved  us,"  (Titus  iii.  5)  ;  "  in 
this  was  manifested  the  love  of  God  towards 
us,  because  that  God  sent  his  only  begotten 
Son  into  the  world,  that  we  might  live 
through  him  ;  herein  is  love,  not  that  we 
loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent 
his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins," 
(1  John  iv.  9,  10)  ;  "  the  only  begotten  of 
the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth,"  (John 
L  14)  ;  "  grace  and  truth .  came  by  Jesus 


>    TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  83 

Christ,"  (John  i.  17);  "the  word  of  his 
grace"  (Acts  xiv.  3) ;  " the  gospel  of  the 
grace  of  God,"  (Acts  xx.  24.). 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  words  of  Him  who 
cannot  lie,  concerning  his  own  free  love. 
These  sayings  are  faithful  and  true  ;  and 
though  perhaps  we  may  but  little  have 
owned  them  as  such,  or  given  heed  to  the 
blessed  news  which  they  embody,  yet  they 
are  all  fitted  to  speak  peace  to  the  soul 
even  of  the  most  troubled  and  heavy  laden. 
Each  of  these  words  of  grace  is  like  a  star 
sparkling  in  the  round,  blue  sky  above  us  ; 
or  like  a  well  of  water  pouring  out  its 
freshness  amid  desert  rocks  and  sands. 
Blessed  are  they  who  know  these  joyful 
sounds,  (Psa.  lxxxix.  15). 

Let  no  one  say, — "  We  know  all  these 
passages  ;  of  what  use  is  it  to  read  and  re- 
read words  so  familiar  V  Much  everf  way. 
Chiefly  because  it  is  in  such  declarations 
regarding  the  riches  of  God's  free  love  that 
the  gospel  is  wrapped  up ;  and  it  is  out  of 


84<  THE  WORD  OF  THE 

these  that  the  Holy  Spirit  ministers  light 
and  peace  to  us.  Such  are  the  words  which 
he  delights  to  honour  as  his  messengers  of 
joy  to  the  soul.  Hear  then,  in  these,  the 
voice  of  the  Spirit's  love,  as  well  as  the 
love  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  !  If  you 
find  no  peace  coming  out  of  them  to  you, 
as  you  read  them  the  first  time,  read  them 
again.  If  you  find  nothing  the  second 
time,  read  them  once  more.  If  you  find 
nothing  the  hundredth  or  the  thousandth 
time,  study  them  yet  again.  "  The  word 
of  God  is  quick  and  poiverful"  (Heb.  iv. 
12) ;  his  sayings  are  the  "  lively  oracles," 
(Acts  vii.  38)  ;  his  word  "  liueth  and  abid- 
eth  for  ever,"  (1  Peter  i.  23)  ;  it  is  "like  a 
fire,  and  like  a  hammer  that  breaketh  the 
rock  in  pieces,"  (Jer.  xxiii.  29).  The  gospel 
is  "the  power  of  God,"  (Rom.  i.  16) ;  and 
it  is  by  "  manifestation  of  the  truth,"  that 
we  commend  ourselves  to  every  man's  con- 
science in  the  sight  of  God,  (2  Cor.  iv.  2). 
There  are  no  words  like  those  of  God,  in 


TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  85 

heaven  or  in  earth.  Hence  it  is  that  we 
are  to  study  that  "  which  is  written  ;"  for 
He  himself  wrote  it ;  and  he  wrote  it  foi 
you.  Do  not  thick  it  needless  to  read  these 
passages  again  and  again.  They  will  blaze 
up  at  last  ;  and  light  up  that  dark  soul  of 
yours  with  the  very  joy  of  heaven. 

You  have  sometimes  looked  up  to  the 
sky  at  twilight,  searching  for  a  star  which 
you  expected  to  find  in  its  wonted  place. 
You  did  not  see  it  at  first,  but  you  knew  it 
was  there,  and  that  its  light  was  undi- 
minished. So,  instead  of  closing  your  eye 
or  turning  away  to  some  other  object,  you 
continued  to  gaze  more  and  more  intently 
on  the  spot  where  you  knew  it  was.  Slowly 
and  faintly  the  star  seemed  to  come  out  in 
the  sky,  as  you  gazed  ;  and  your  persever- 
ing search  ended  in  the  discovery  of  the 
long-sought  gem. 

Just  so  is  it  with  those  passages  which 
speak  to  you  of  the  free  love  of  God.  You 
say,  I   have  looked  into  them,  but  they 


86  THE  WORD  OF  THE 

contain  nothing  for  me.  Do  not  turn 
away  from  them,  as  if  you  knew  them  too 
well  already,  yet  could  find  nothing  in 
them.  You  have  not  seen  them  yet. 
There  are  wonders  beyond  all  price  hidden 
in  each.  Take  them  up  again.  Search 
and  study  them.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  most 
willing  to  reveal  to  you  the  glory  which 
they  contain.  It  is  his  office,  it  is  his 
delight,  to  be  the  sinner's  teacher.  He 
will  not  be  behind  you  in  willingness.  It 
is  of  the  utmost  moment  that  you  should 
remember  this  ;  lest  you  should  grieve 
and  repel  him  by  your  distrust.  Never 
lose  sight  of  this  great  truth,  that  the  evil 
thing  in  you,  which  is  the  root  of  bitter- 
ness to  the  soul,  is  distrust  of  God ;  dis- 
trust of  the  Father,  who  so  loved  the  world 
as  to  give  his  Son  ;  distrust  of  the  Sou, 
who  came  to  seek  and  save  that  which 
was  lost ;  distrust  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
whose  tender  mercies  are  over  you,  and 
whose  work  of  love  is  to  reveal  the  Christ 


TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  87 

of  God  to  your  souls.  Besides,  keep  this 
in  mind,  that  in  teaching  you  he  is  hon- 
ouring his  own  word  and  glorifying  Christ. 
You  need  not  then  suspect  him  of  indiffer- 
ence toward  you,  or  doubt  his  willingness 
to  "  enlighten  the  eyes  of  your  understand- 
ing." While  you  are  firmly  persuaded  that 
it  is  only  his  teaching  that  can  be  of  any 
real  use  to  you,  do  not  grieve  him  by  sepa- 
rating his  love,  in  writing  the  Bible  for 
you,  from  his  willingness  to  make  you  un- 
derstand it.  He  who  gave  you  the  word 
will  interpret  it  for  you.  He  does  not 
stand  aloof  from  you  or  from  his  own 
word,  as  if  he  needed  to  be  persuaded,  or 
bribed  by  your  deeds  and  prayers,  to  un- 
fold the  heavenly  truth  to  you.  Trust 
him  for  teaching.  Taste  and  see  that  he 
is  good.  Avail  yourself  at  once  of  his  love 
and  power. 

Do  not  say  I  am  not  entitled  to  trust 
him  till  I  am  converted.  You  are  to  trust 
him  as  a  sinner,  not  as  a  converted  man ) 


88  THE  WORD  OF  THE 

You  are  to  trust  him  as  you  are,  not  as 
you  hope  to  be  made  ere  long.  Your  con- 
version is  not  your  warrant  for  trusting 
him.  The  great  sin  of  an  unconverted 
man  is  his  not  trusting  the  God  that  made 
him  ;  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit ;  and  how 
can  any  one  be  so  foolish,  not  to  say  wicked, 
as  to  ask  for  a  warrant  for  forsaking  sin  1 
What  would  you  say  to  a  thief  who  should 
say,  I  have  no  warrant  to  forsake  stealing ; 
I  must  wait  till  I  am  made  an  honest  man, 
then  I  shall  give  it  up  %  And  what  shall  I 
say  to  a  distruster  of  God,  who  tells  me 
that  he  has  no  warrant  for  giving  up  his 
distrust,  for  he  is  not  entitled  to  trust  God 
till  he  is  converted  ?  One  of  the  greatest 
things  in  conversion  is  turning  from  dis- 
trust to  trust.  If  you  are  not  entitled  to 
turn  at  once  from  distrust  to  trust,  then 
your  distrust  is  no  sin.  If,  however,  your 
distrust  of  the  Holy  Spirit  be  one  of  your 
worst  sins ;  how  absurd  it  is  to  say,  I  am 
not  entitled  to  trust  him  till  I  am  con- 


TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  89 

verted !  For  is  not  that  just  saying,  I  am 
not  entitled  to  trust  him  till  I  trust  him  ? 

You  say  that  you  know  God  to  be  gra- 
cious, yet,  by  your  acting,  you  shew  that 
you  do  not  believe  him  to  be  so ;  or,  at 
least,  to  be  so  gracious  as  to  be  willing  to 
shew  you  the  meaning  of  his  own  word. 
You  believe  him  to  be  so  gracious  as  to 
give  his  only  begotten  Son ; .  yet  the  way 
in  which  you  treat  him,  as  to  his  word 
shews  that  you  do  not  believe  him  to  be 
willing  to  give  his  Spirit  to  make  known 
his  truth.  Nay,  you  think  yourself  much 
more  willing  to  be  taught  than  he  is  to 
teach  ;  more  willing  to  be  blest  than  he  is 
to  bless. 

You  say,  I  must  wait  till  God  enlightens 
my  mind.  If  God  had  told  you  that  wait- 
ing is  the  way  to  light,  you  would  be  right. 
But  he  has  nowhere  told  you  to  wait ;  and 
your  idea  of  waiting  is  a  mere  excuse  for 
not  trusting  him  immediately.  If  your  way 
of  proceeding  be  correct,  God  must  have 

h2 


90  THE  WORD  OF  THE 

said  boti,  "  Come"  and  "  wait,"  "  Come  now, 
but  do  not  come  now,"  which  is  a  contra- 
diction.    When  a  kind  rich  man  sends  a 
message  to  a  poor  cripple  to  come  at  once 
to  him  and  be  provided  for,  he  sends  his 
carriage  to  convey  him.     He  does  not  say, 
"Come ;  but  then,  as  you  are  lame,  and  have 
besides  no  means  of  conveyance,  you  must 
make  all  the  interest  you  can,  and  use  all 
the  means  in  your  power,  to  induce  me  to 
send  my  carriage  for  you."     The  invitation 
and  the  carriage  go  together.     Much  more 
is  this  true  of  God  and  his  messages.     His 
word  and  his  Spirit  go  together.     Not  that 
the  Spirit  is  in  the  word,  or  the  power 
in  the  message,  as  some  foolishly  tell  you. 
They   are   distinct   things  ;   but   they   go 
together.     And  your  mistake  lies  in  sup- 
posing, that  He  who  sent  the  one  may  not 
be  willing  to  send  the  other.   You  think  that 
it  is  He,  not  yourself,  who  creates  the  inter- 
val which  you  call  "  waiting  ;"  although  this 
waiting  is,  in  reality,  a  deliberate  refusal  to 


TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  91 

comply  with  a  command  of  God,  and  a  de- 
termination to  do  something  else,  which  he 
has  not  commanded,  instead ;  a  determina- 
tion to  make  the  doinsr  of  that  something 
else  an  excuse  for  not  doing  the  very  thing 
commanded !  Thus  it  is  that  you  rid  yourself 
of  blame  by  pleading  inability  ;  nay  more, 
you  throw  the  blame  on  God,  for  not  being 
willing  to  do  immediately  that  which  he  is 
most  willing  to  do. 

God  demands  immediate  acceptance  of 
his  Son,  and  immediate  belief  of  his  gos- 
pel. You  evade  this  duty  on  the  plea, 
that  as  you  cannot  accept  Christ  of  yourself, 
you  must  go  and  ask  him  to  enable  you 
to  do  so.  By  this  pretext  you  try  to  relieve 
yourself  from  the  overwhelming  sense  of  the 
necessity  for  immediate  obedience.  You 
soothe  your  conscience  with  the  idea  that  you 
are  doing  what  you  can,  in  the  mean  time, 
and  that  so  you  are  not  guilty  of  unbelief, 
as  before,  seeing  you  desire  to  believe,  and 
are  doing  your  part  in  this  great  business ! 


92  THE  WORD  OF  THE 

It  will  not  do.  The  command  is,  "  Be- 
lieve in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Nothing 
less  than  this  is  pleasing  to  God.  And 
though  it  is  every  man's  duty  to  pray,  just  as 
it  is  every  mans  duty  to  love  God  and  to 
keep  his  statutes,  yet  you  must  not  delude 
yourself  with  the  idea  that  you  are  doing 
the  right  thing,  when  you  only  pray  to  be- 
lieve, instead  of  believing.  The  thief  is 
still  a  thief ;  though  he  may  desire  to  give 
up  stealing,  and  pray  to  be  enabled  to  give 
it  up ;  until  he  actually  give  it  up. 

The  question  is  not  as  to  whether  prayer 
is  a  duty  ;  but  whether  it  is  a  right  and 
acceptable  thing  to  pray  in  unbelief.  Un- 
believing prayer  is  prayei*  to  an  unknoivn 
God,  and  it  cannot  be  your  duty  to  pray  to 
an  unknown  God. 

You  must  go  to  your  knees,  believing 
either  that  God  is  willing,  or  that  he  is  not 
willing,  to  bless  you.  In  the  latter  case, 
you  cannot  expect  any  answer  or  blessing 
In  the  former  case,  you  are  really  believ- 


TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  93 

trig  ;  as  it  is  written,  "  He  that  cometh  to 
God  must  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is 
the  rewarder  of  all  those  that  diligently 
seek  him,"  (Heb.  xi.  6).  In  maintaining 
the  duty  of  praying  before  believing,  you 
cannot  surely  be  asserting  that  it  is  your 
duty  to  go  to  God  in  unbelief  ?  You  can- 
not mean  to  say  that  you  ought  to  go  to 
God,  believing  that  he  is  not  willing  to 
bless  you,  in  order  that  by  so  praying  you 
may  persuade  him  to  make  you  believe 
that  he  is  willing.  Are  you  to  persist  in 
unbelief  till  in  some  miraculous  way  faith 
drops  into  you,  and  God  compels  you  to  be- 
lieve ?  Must  you  go  to  God  with  unac- 
ceptable prayer,  in  order  to  induce  him  to 
give  you  the  power  of  acceptable  prayer  ? 
Is  this  what  you  mean  by  the  duty  of 
praying  in  order  to  believe  ?  If  so,  it  is  a 
delusion  and  a  sin. 

Understanding  prayer  in  the  scriptural 
sense,  I  would  tell  every  man  to  pray,  just 
as  I  would  tell  every  man  to  believe.     For 


94  THE  WORD  OF  TUB 

prayer  includes  and  presupposes  faith.  It 
assumes  that  the  man  knows  something  of 
the  God  he  is  going  to  ;  and  that  is  faith. 
"Whosoever  shall  call  on  the  name 
of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved,"  (Rom.  x. 
13).  But  then  the  Apostle  adds,  "How 
shall  they  call  on  him  in  tvhom  they  have 
not  believed?"  (Rom.  x.  14.)  Does  not  this 
last  verse  go  to  -the  very  root  of  the  matter 
before  us  ?  It  is  every  man's  duty  to  "  call 
upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  (Joel  ii.  32 ; 
Acts  ii.  21) ;  nay,  it  is  the  great  sin  of  the 
ungodly  that  they  do  not  do  so,  (Psa.  xiv. 
4  ;  Jer.  x.  25).  Yet  says  the  Apostle,  "How 
shall  they  call  on  him  in  whom  they  have 
not  believed  V 

But  I  do  not  enter  further  on  this  point 
here.  It  may  come  up  again.  Meanwhile, 
I  would  just  remind  you  of  the  tidings  con- 
cerning God's  free  love,  in  the  free  gift  of 
his  Son.  Listen  to  what  He  himself  has  told 
you  regarding  this,  and  know  the  God  who 
is  asking  you  to  call  upon  his  name  ;  for  if 


TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  95 

thou  but  knewest  this  God  and  his  great 
gift  of  love,  thou  wouldest  ask  of  him  and 
he  would  give  thee  living  water,  (John  iv. 
10).  Remember  that  the  gospel  is  not  a 
list  of  duties  to  be  performed,  or  feelings  to 
be  produced,  or  frames  which  we  are  to  pray 
ourselves  into,  in  order  to  make  God  think 
well  of  us,  and  in  order  to  fit  us  for  receiv- 
ing pardon.  The  gospel  is  the  good  news 
of  the  great  work"  done  upon  the  cross. 
The  knowledge  of  that  finished  work  is 
immediate  peace. 

Read  again  and  again  the  wondrous  words 
which  I  have  quoted  at  length  from  His  own 
book.  The  Bible  is  a  living  book,  not  a  dead 
one ;  a  divine  one,  not  a  human  one ;  a 
perfect  one,  not  an  imperfect  one.*  Search 
it,  study  it,  dig  into  it.     "My  son,"  says  God, 

*  "We  must  make  a  great  difference  between  God's 
word  and  the  word  of  man.  A  man's  word  is  a  little 
Bound  which  flieth  into  the  air  and  soon  vanisheth ; 
but  the  word  of  God  is  greater  than  heaven  and  earth, 
yea,  it  is  greater  than  death  and  hell,  for  it  is  the 


96  THE  WORD  OF  THE 

our  Father,  receive  my  words ;  hide  my 
commandments  with  thee ;  incline  thine 
ear  unto  wisdom  ;  take  fast  hold  of  instruc- 
tion ;  attend  unto  my  wisdom  and  bow  thine 
ear  to  my  understanding  ;  keep  my  words 
and  lay  up  my  commandments  with  thee." 
Do  not  say  these  messages  are  only  for  the 
children  of  God  ;  for,  as  if  to  prevent  this, 
God  thus  speaks  to  the  "simple,"  the 
"scorners,"  the  fools,  "Turn  ye  at  my  re- 
proof;" shewing  us  that  it  is  in  listening  to  His 
words  that  the  simple,  the  scorner,  and  the 
fool  cease  to  be  such  and  become  sons.  Do 
not  revert  to  the  old  difficulty  about  your 
need  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  for,  as  if  to  meet 
this,  God,  in  the  above  passage,  adds,  "Be- 
hold I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  unto  you,  I 
will  make  known  my  words  unto  you," 
(Prov.  i.  23).     Not  for  one  moment  would 

power  of  God,  and  remaineth  everlastingly.  There- 
fore we  ought  diligently  to  learn  God's  word,  and  we 
must  know  certainly  and  believe  that  God  himself 
speaketh  with  us." — Luthek. 


TRUTH  OF  THE   30SPEL.  97 

God  allow  you  to  suspect  his  willingness  to 
accompany  his  word  with  his  Spirit. 

Honour  the  words  of  God  ;  and  honour 
him  who  wrote  them,  by  trusting  him  for: 
interpretation  and  light.  Do  not  disparage 
them  by  calling  them  "a  dead  letter."  They 
are  not  dead.  If  you  will  use  the  figure  of 
"  death"  in  this  case,  use  it  rightly.  They 
are  "the  savour  of  death  unto  death  in 
them  that  perish  ;"  but  this  only  shews- 
their  awful  vitality.  As  the  blood  of  Christ 
either  cleanses  or  condemns,  so  the  words 
of  the  Spirit  either  kill  or  make  alive. 
"  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are- 
Spirit,  and  they  are  life,"  (John  vi.  63). 

Again  I  say  to  you,  honour  the  words  of 
God.  Make  much  of  them.  Them  that 
honour  me  I  will  honour,  is  as  true  o£ 
Scripture  as  it  is  of  the  God  of  Scripture.. 
Peace,  light,  comfort,  life,  salvation,  holi- 
ness, are  wrapt  up  in  them.  "  Thy  word, 
bath  quickened  me,"  (Psa.  cxix.  50).  "  I 
will   never  forget  thy  precepts  ::  for  with 


98  THE  WORD  OF  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

them  thou  hast  quickened  me,"  (Psalm 
cxix.  93 

It  is  through  "  belief  or  the  truth 
that  God  hath  from  the  beginning  chosen 
us  to  salvation,"  (2  Thess.  ii.  13).  It  is 
"with  the  word  of  truth"  that  he  begets 
us,  (Jas.  i.  18)  ;  and  all  this  is  in  per- 
fect harmony  with  the  great  truth  of  man's 
total  helplessness  and  his  need  of  the  Al- 
mighty Spirit. 

"  So  then  FAITH  COMETH  BY  HEARING, 
AND  HEARING  BY  THE  WORD  OF  GOD," 

(Rom.  x.  17).  "Hear,  and  your  soul  shall 
live,"  (Isa.  Iv.  3). 


CHAPTER  Vm. 


BELIEVE   AND   BE   SAVED, 


Gen.  xt.  6. 

Matt.  viii.  8-13. 

Acts  x.  43. 

Isa.  xxvi.  4. 

Mark  ii.  5. 

1  Tim.  i.  16. 

Hab.  ii.  4. 

John  ri.  29-69. 

1  John  v.  10. 

It  is  the  Holy  Spirit  alone  that  can  draw 
us  to  the  cross  and  fasten  us  to  the  Saviour. 
He  who  thinks  he  can  do  without  the  Spirit, 
has  yet  to  learn  his  own  sinfulness  and 
helplessness.  The  gospel  would  be  no  good 
news  to  the  dead  in  sin,  if  it  did  not  tell  of 
the  love  and  power  of  the  divine  Spirit,  as 
explicitly  as  it  announces  the  love  and  power 
of  the  divine  Substitute. 

But,  while  keeping  this  in  mind,  we  may 
try  to  learn  from  Scripture  what  is  written 
concerning  the  bond  which  connects  us  in- 


100  BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED. 

dividually  with  the  cross  of  Christ ;  making 
lis  thereby  partakers  of  the  pardon  and  the 
life  which  that  cross  reveals. 

Thus  then  it  is  written,  "By  grace  are 
ye  saved,  through  faith;  and  that  not 
of  yourselves  :  it  is  the  gift  of  God,"  (Eph. 
ii.  8). 

Faith  then  is  the  link,  the  one  link,  be- 
tween the  sinner  and  the  Sinbearer.  It  is 
not  faith,  as  a  work  or  exercise  of  our 
minds,  which  must  be  properly  performed 
in  order  to  qualify  or  fit  us  for  pardon.  It 
is  not  faith,  as  a  religious  duty,  which  must 
be  gone  through  according  to  certain  rules, 
in  order  to  induce  Christ  to  give  us  the 
benefits  of  his  work.  It  is  faith,  simply  as 
a  receiver  of  the  divine  record  concerning 
the  Son  of  God.  It  is  not  faith  considered 
as  the  source  of  holiness,  as  containing  in 
itself  the  seed  of  all  spiritual  excellence 
and  good  works ;  it  is  faith  alone,  recog- 
nising simply  tb  3  completeness  of  the  great 
sacrifice  for  sin   and  the  trueness  of  the 


BELIEVE  AND  EE  SAVED.  101 

Father's  testimony  to  that  completeness  ; 
as  Paul  writes  to  the  Thessalonians,  u  our 
testimony  among  you  was  believed"  (2 
Thess.  i.  10).  It  is  not  faith  as  a  piece  of 
money  or  a  thing  of  merit ;  but  faith  tak- 
ing God  at  his  word,  and  giving  him  credit 
for  speaking  the  honest  truth,  when  he  de- 
clares that  "  Christ  died  for  the  ungodly," 
(Rom.  v.  6),  and  that  the  life  which  that 
death  contains  for  sinners,  is  to  be  had 
"  without  money,  and  without  price,"  (Isa. 
Iv.  1). 

But  let  us  learn  the  things  concerning 
this  faith,  from  the  lips  of  God  himself, 
I  lay  great  stress  on  this  in  dealing  with 
inquirers.  For  the  more  that  we  can  fix 
the  sinner's  eye  and  conscience  upon  God's 
own  words,  the  more  likely  shall  we  be  to 
lead  him  aright,  and  to  secure  the  quicken- 
ing presence  of  that  Almighty  Spirit  who 
alone  can  give  sight  to  the  blind.  One  great 
difficulty  which  the  inquirer  finds  in  such 

cases,  is  that  of  unlearning  much  of  his 

12 


102  BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED. 

past  experience  and  teaching.  Hence  the 
importance  ,of  studying  the  divine  word3 
themselves,  by  which  the  sinner  is  made 
wise  unto  salvation.  For  they  both  un- 
teach  the  false  and  imperfect,  and  teach 
the  true  and  the  perfect. 

Let  us  mark  how  frequently  and  strongly 
God  has  spoken  respecting  "faith"  and 
"  believing."  "  Without  faith  it  is  impos- 
sible to  please  God/'  (Heb.  xi.  6).  "  Therein 
is  the  righteousness  of  God  revealed  from 
faith  to  faith:  as  it  is  written,  The  just 
shall  live  by  faith;'  (Rom.  i.  17).  "  The 
righteousness  of  God  which  is  by  faith  of 
Jesus  Christ  unto  all  and  upon  all  them 
that  believe"  (Rom.  iii.  22).  "Whom  God 
hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through 
faith  in  his  blood  ....  to  declare  his 
righteousness  :  that  he  might  be  just,  and 
the  justifier  of  him  which  believeth  in 
Jesus,"  (Rom.  iii.  23-26).  "He  that  be- 
lieveth shall  be  saved,"  (Mark  xvi.  16). 
"  As  many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave 


BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED.  103 

he  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even 
to  them  that  believe  on  his  name,"  (John  i. 
12).  "As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in 
the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of 
man  be  lifted  up,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  him  should  not  perish  but  have  eternal 
life  ;  for  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he 
gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life.  He  that  believeth  on  him 
is  not  condemned  :  but  he  that  believeth 
not  is  condemned  already,  because  he  hath 
not  believed  in  the  name  of  the  only  be- 
gotten Son  of  God,"  (John  iii.  14-18). 
"  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  ever- 
lasting life,  and  he  that  believeth  not  the 
Son  shall  not  see  life,"  (John  iii.  36).  "  He 
that  heareth  my  word,  and  believeth  on  him 
that  sent  me,  hath  everlasting  life,"  (John 
v.  24).  "  This  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye 
believe  on  him  whom  he  hath  sent,"  (John 
vi.  29).  "He  that  believeth  on  me  shall 
never  thirst,"  (John  vi.  35).     "  This  is  the 


104         BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED. 

will  of  him  that  sent  me,  that  every  one 
which  seeth  the  Son,  and  believeth  on  him, 
may  have  everlasting  life,"  (John  vi.  40). 
'  He  that  believeth  on  me,  though  he  were 
dead,  yet  shall  he  live  ;  and  whosoever  liv- 
eth  and  believeth  in  me  shall  never  die," 
(John  xi.  25,  26).  "I  am  come  a  light  into 
the  world,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  me 
should  not  abide  in  darkness,"  (John  xii. 
46).  "These  are  written  that  ye  might 
believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  and  that  believing,  ye  might  have 
life  through  his  name,"  (John  xx.  31). 
"  By  him  all  that  believe  are  justified  from 
all  things,"  (Acts  xiii.  39).  "  Believe  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved," 
(Acts  xvi.  31).  "  To  him  gave  all  the  pro- 
phets witness,  that  through  his  name  who- 
soever believeth  in  him  shall  receive  remis- 
sion of  sins,"  (Acts  x.  43).  "  To  him  that 
worketh  not,  but  believeth  on  him  that  jus- 
tifieth  the  ungodly,  his  faith  is  counted  for 
righteousness,"  (Rom.  iv.  5).      "Christ  is 


BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED.  '  105 

the  3nd  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every 
one  that  believeth"  (Rom.  x.  4).  " If  thou 
shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  shalt  believe  in  thine  heart  that  God 
hath  raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt 
be  saved,"  (Rom.  x.  9).  "  It  pleased  God, 
by  the  foolishness  of  preaching,  to  save 
them  that  believe"  (1  Cor.  i.  21).  " This 
is  his  commandment,  that  ye  believe  on 
him  whom  he  hath  sent,"  (1  John  iii.  23). 
"We  have  known  and  believed  the  love 
that  God  hath  to  us,"  (1  John  iv.  16). 
"Whosoever  believeth  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  is  born  of  God,"  (I  John  v.  1).  "  He 
that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God  hath  the 
witness  in  himself;  he  that  believeth  not 
God  hath  made  him  a  bar,  because  he  be- 
lieveth not  the  record  that  God  gave  of  his 
Son,"  (1  John  v.  10).  "  He  that  believeth 
not  shall  be  damned,"  (Mark  xvi.  16). 

These  are  some  of  the  many  texts  which 
teach  us  what  the  link  is  between  the  sin- 
uer  and  the  great  salvation.     They  shew 


106  BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED. 

that  it  is  our  belief  of  God's  testimoDy, 
concerning  his  own  free  love,  and  the  work1 
of  his  Son,  that  makes  us  partakers  of  the 
blessings  which  that  testimony  reveals. 
They  do  not  indeed  ascribe  any  meritori- 
ous or  saving  virtue  to  our  act  of  faith. 
They  shew  us  that  it  is  the  object  of  faith, 
— the  person,  or  thing,  or  truth  of  which 
faith  lays  hold, — that  is  the  soul's  peace 
and  consolation.  But  still  they  announce 
most  solemnly  the  necessity  of  believing, 
and  the  greatness  of  the  sin  of  unbelief. 
In  them  God  demands  the  immediate  faith 
of  all  who  hear  his  testimony.  Yet  he 
gives  no  countenance  to  the  self-righteous- 
ness of  those  who  are  trying  to  perform  the 
act  of  faith,  in  order  to  qualify  themselves 
for  the  favour  of  God  ;  whose  religion  con- 
sists in  performing  acts  of  faith  of  a  certain 
kind ;  whose  comfort  arises  from  thinking 
of  these  well-performed  acts  ;  and  whose 
assurance  comes  from  the  summing  up  of 
these   at   certain    seasons,    and    dwelling 


BELIEVE  AND  BE  SATED.  107 

upon  the  superior  quality  of  many  of 
them. 

In  some  places  the  word  trust  occurs 
where  perhaps  we  might  have  expected 
faith.  But  the  reason  of  this  is  plain  ;  the 
testimony  which  faith  receives,  is  testimony 
to  a  person  and  his  good  will,  in  which  case, 
belief  of  the  testimony  and  confidence  in 
the  person  are  things  inseparable.  Our  re- 
ception of  God's  testimony  is  confidence  in 
God  himself,  and  in  Jesus  Christ  his  Son. 
Hence  it  is  that  Scripture  speaks  of  "trust" 
or  "confidence"  as  that  which  saves  us,*  as 
if  it  would  say  to  the  sinner,  "  Such  is  the 
gracious  character  of  God,  that  you  have 
only  to  put  your  case  into  his  hands,  how- 
ever bad  it  be,  and  entrust  your  soul  to  his 
keeping,  and  you  shall  be  saved." 

In  some  places  we  are  said  to  be  saved 
by  the  knowledge  of  God  or  of  Christ ;  that 

*  See  very  many  of  the  Psalms; — ii.  12;  xiii.  5; 
xl.  4 ;  lii.  8  ;  also,  Prov.  xxix.  25;  Isa.  xii.  2;  1  Tim, 
iv,  10  ;  Eph.  i.  12. 


108  BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED. 

is  by  simply  knowing  God  as  he  has  made 
himself  known  to  us  in  Jesus  Christ.  (Isa. 
liii.  11  ;  1  Tim.  ii.  4  ;  2  Pet.  ii.  20.)  Thus 
Jesus  spoke,  "  This  is  life  eternal,  that  they 
might  know  thee,  the  only  wise  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent,"  (John 
xvii.  3).  And  as  if  to  make  simplicity  more 
simple,  the  Apostle,  in  speaking  of  the  facts 
of  Christ's  death,  and  burial,  and  resurrec- 
tion, says,  "  By  which  ye  are  saved,  if  ye 
keep  in  memory  what  I  preached  unto  you," 
(1  Cor.  xv.  1,  2).* 

Thus  God  connects  salvation  with  "be- 
lieving," "trusting,"  "knowing,"  "remem- 
bering." Yet  the  salvation  is  not  in  our 
act  of  believing,  trusting,  knowing,  or  re- 

*  As  a  good  memory  means  the  correct  remembrance 
of  the  very  things  that  have  occurred ;  so  the  essence 
of  a  right  faith  is  a  belief  of  the  right  thing.  And  as 
bad  memory  is  refreshed  or  corrected  by  presenting 
again  and  again  the  objects  to  be  remembered,  so  a 
wrong  faith  (or  unbelief)  requires  to  have  the  full 
testimony  of  God  to  be  presented  to  the  soul. 


BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED.         109 

membering ;  it  is  in  the  thing  or  person 
believed  on,  trusted,  known,  remembered. 
Nor  is  salvation  given  as  a  reward  for 
believing  and  knowing.  The  things  be- 
lieved and  known  are  our  salvation.  Nor 
are  we  saved  or  comforted  by  thinking 
about  our  act  of  believing  and  ascertain- 
ing that  it  possesses  all  the  proper  in- 
gredients and  qualities  which  would  induce 
God  to  approve  of  it,  and  of  us  because 
of  it.  This  would  be  making  faith  a  meri- 
torious, or,  at  least,  a  qualifying  work  ;  and 
then  grace  would  be  no  more  grace.  It 
would  really  be  making  our  faith  a  part  of 
Christ's  work, — the  finishing  stroke  put  to 
the  great  undertaking  of  the  Son  of  God, 
which,  otherwise,  would  have  been  incom- 
plete, or,  at  least,  unsuitable  for  the  sinner, 
as  a  sinner.  To  the  man  that  makes  his 
faith  and  his  trust  his  rest,  and  tries  to 
pacify  his  conscience  by  getting  up  evidence 
of  their  solidity  and  excellence,  we  say, 
miserable  comforters  are  they  all !     I  get 


110  BELIEVE  AND  BE  BAYED. 

light  by  using  my  eyes  ;  not  by  thinking 
about  my  use  of  them,  nor  by  a  scientific 
analysis  of  their  component  parts.  So  I 
get  peace  by,  and  in  believing;  not  by 
thinking  about  my  faith,  or  trying  to  prove 
to  myself  how  well  I  have  performed  the 
believing  act.  We  might  as  well  extract 
water  from  the  desert-sands  as  peace  from 
our  own  act  of  faith.  Believing  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  will  do  everything  for  us  ;  be- 
lieving in  our  own  faith,  or  trusting  in  our 
own  trust,  will  do  nothing. 

Thus  faith  is  the  bond  between  us  and 
the  Son  of  God  ;  and  it  is  so,  not  because 
of  anything  in  itself,  but  because  it  is  only 
through  the  medium  of  truth,  as  known 
and  believed,  that  the  soul  can  get  hold  of 
things  or  persons.'  Faith  is  nothing,  save 
as  it  lays  hold  of  Christ ;  and  it  does  so  by 
laying  hold  of  the  truth  or  testimon}^  con- 
cerning him.  "Faith  cometh  by  hearing, 
and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God,"  says  the 
apostle.     "Ye  shall  knowtfte  truth"  says 


BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED.  HI 

the  Lord,  "  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free,"  (John  viii.  32) ;  and  again,  "  because 
I  tell  you  the  truth,  ye  believe  me  not.  .  . 
And  if  I  say  the  truth,  why  do  ye  not  be- 
lieve me  V  (John  viii.  45,  46).  We  have 
also  such  expressions  as  these,  "  Those  that 
know  the  truth"  (1  Tim.  iv.  3) ;  "those  that 
obey  not  the  truth"  (Rom.  ii.  8)  ;  "  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  (Eph.  iv.  21)  ;  "  be- 
lief of  the  truth"  (2  Thess.  ii.  13) ;  "  ac- 
knowledging of  the  truth,"  (2  Tim.  ii.  25) ; 
"the  way  of  truth"  (2  Pet.  ii.  2)  ;  "  we  are 
of  the  truth"  (  1  John  iii.  19 ;  " destitute 
of  the  truth"  (  1  Tim.  vi.  5) ;  "  sanctify 
them  through  thy  truth"  (John  xvii.  11)  ; 
" I  speak  forth  the  words  of  truth"  (Acts 
xxvi.  25)  ;  "  the  Spirit  of  truth  will  guide 
you  into  all  truth,"  (John  xvi.  13).  Most 
memorable,  in  connection  with  this  subject, 
are  the  Lord's  warnings  in  the  parable  of 
the  sower,  specially  the  following ; — "  The 
seed  is  the  word  of  God.  Those  by  the 
wayside  are  they  that  hear :  then  cometh 


112  BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED. 

the  deiil,  and  taketh  away  the  word  out  of 
their  hearts,  lest  they  should  believe  and 
be  saved,"  (Luke  viii.  11,  12).  The  words, 
too,  of  the  beloved  disciple  are  no  less  so  ; 
— "  He  that  saw  it  bare  record,  and  his  re- 
cord is  true  ;  and  he  knoiveth  that  he  saith 
true,  THAT  YE  might  believe,"  (John  xix. 
35)  ;  and,  again,  "  These  are  written,  THAT 
YE  MIGHT  BELIEVE  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God  ;  and  that  believing  ye 
might  have  life  through  his  name,"  (John 
xx.  31).* 

This  truth  regarding;  Christ  and  his  sacri- 
ficial  work,  the  natural  man  hates,  because 
he  hates  Christ  himself.  "  They  hated  ME," 
says  the  Lord,  (John  xv.  25)  ;  nay,  more, 
they  hated  me  "without  a  cause,"  (Psa. 

*  In  this  matter  there  are  (as  in  most  Bible  state- 
ments) two  sides, — both  to  be  held  fast, — belief  in  a 
person,  and  belief  of  a  truth.  The  former,  carried  to 
an  exclusive  excess,  lands  us  in  mysticism;  the 
latter,  carried  to  a  like  extreme,  ends  in  rationalism. 
We  must  realise  both  the  person  and  the  truth. 


BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED.  11 'J 

lxix.  4).  It  is  not  error  that  man  hates, 
but  truth  ;  and  hence  the  necessity  for  the 
•  Holy  Spirit's  work  to  remove  that  hatred, 
— to  make  the  sinner  even  so  much  as 
willing  to  know  the  truth  or  the  True  One. 
Yet  there  is  no  backwardness  on  the  part 
of  God  to  give  'that  Spirit ;-  -and  the  first 
dawnings  of  inquiry  and  anxiety  shew  that 
something  beyond  "  flesh  and  blood  "  is  at 
work  in  the  souL 

But  though  it  needs  the  power  of  the 
divine  Spirit  to  make  us  believing  men  ; 
this  is  not  because  faith  is  a  mysteri- 
ous thing,  a  great  exercise  or  effort  of 
soul,  which  must  be  very  accurately  gone 
through  in  order  to  make  it  acceptable  ; 
but  because  of  our  dislike  to  the  truth  be- 
lieved, and  our  enmity  to  the  Being  in 
whom  we  are  asked  to  confide.  Believing 
is  the  simplest  of  all  mental  processes  ; 
yet  not  the  less  is  the  power  of  God  needed. 
Let  not  the  inquirer  mystify  or  magnify 

faith  in  order  to  give  it  merit  or  import- 

k2 


114  BELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED. 

ance  in  itself,  so  that  by  its  superior 
texture  or  quality  it  may  justify  Mm  ;  yet 
never,  on  the  other  hand,  let  him  try  to 
simplify  it  for  the  purpose  of  making  the 
Spirit's  work  unnecessary.  The  more  sim- 
ple that  he  sees  it  to  be,  the  more  will  he 
see  his  own  guilt,  in  so  deliberately  refusing 
to  believe,  and  his  need  of  the  divine 
Helper  to  overcome  the  fearful  opposition 
of  the  natural  heart  to  the  simple  recep- 
tion of  the  truth.  The  difficulty  of  believ- 
ing has  its  real  root  in  pure  self-righteous- 
ness ;  and  the  struggles  to  believe,  the 
endeavours  to  trust,  of  which  men  speak, 
are  the  indications  of  this  self-righteous- 
ness. So  far  are  these  spiritual  exercises 
from  being  tokens  for  good,  they  are  often 
mere  expressions  of  spiritual  pride, — evi- 
dences of  the  desperate  strength  of  self- 
righteousness  ;  the  very  earnestness  of  the 
struggle  shewing  the  intensity  of  the  self- 
righteousness.  It  is  worse  than"  vain,  then, 
to   try  and    comfort   an   anxious  soul  by 


EELIEVE  AND  BE  SAVED.         115 

pointing  to  these  exercises  or  efforts  as 
proofs  of  existing  faith.  They  are  proofs 
either  of  ignorance  or  of  unbelief.— -proofs 
of  the  sinner's  determination  to  do  any- 
thing rather  than  believe  that  all  is  done. 
Doubts  are  not  the  best  evidence  of  faith  ; 
and  attempts  at  performing  this  great  thing 
called  faith  are  mere  proofs  of  blindness  to 
the  finished  propitiation  of  the  Son  of  God. 
To  do  some  great  thing  called  faith,  in 
order  to  win  God's  favour,  the  sinner  has 
no  objection;  nay,  it  is  just  what  he  wants, 
for  it  gives  him  the  opportunity  of  work- 
ing for  his  salvation.  But  he  rejects  the 
idea  of  taking  his  stand  upon  a  work 
already  done,  and  so  ceasing  to  exercise 
his  soul  in  order  to  effect  a  reconciliation, 
for  which  all  that  is  needed  was  accom- 
plished eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  upon 
the  cross  of  Him  who  "  was  made  sin  for 
us,  though  he  knew  no  sin  ;  that  we  might 
be  mad 3  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him," 
(2  Cor.  v.  21). 


CHAPTEE  IX. 


BELIEVE  JUST  NOW. 

Psa. 

.  xcr. 

7,8. 

Amos  v.  4. 

Heb. 

iv.  7-13. 

Isa. 

lv.6. 

John  siL  36. 

Rev. 

xxi. 

You  are  in  earnest  now ;  but  I  fear  you 
are  making  your  earnestness  your  Christ, 
and  actually  using  it  as  a  reason  for  not 
trusting  Christ  immediately.'  You  think 
your  earnestness  will  lead  on  to  faith,  if  it 
be  but  intense  enough,  and  long  enough 
persisted  in. 

But  there  is  such  a  thing  as  earnestness 
in  the  wrong  direction  ;  earnestness  in  un- 
belief, and  a  substitution  of  earnestness  for 
simple  faith  in  Jesus.  You  must  not  soothe 
the  alarms  of  conscience  by  this  earnest- 
ness of  yours.     It  is  unbelieving  earnest- 


BELIEVE  JUST  SOW.  ]  1? 

ness ;  and  that  will  not  do.  What  God 
demands  is  simple  faith  in  the  record  which 
he  has  given  you  of  his  Son.  You  say,  I 
can't  give  him  faith,  but  I  can  give  him 
earnestness  ;  and  by  giving  him  earnest- 
ness, I  hope  to  persuade  him  to  give  me 
faith.  This  is  self-righteousness.  It  shews 
that  you  regard  both  faith  and  earnestness 
as  something  to  be  done  in  order  to  please 
God,  and  secure  his  goodwill.  You  say, 
Faith  is  the  gift  of  God,  but  earnestness  is 
not ;  it  is  in  my  own  power ;  therefore  I 
will  earnestly  labour,  and  struggle,  and 
pray,  hoping  that  ere  long  God  will  take 
pity  on  my  earnest  struggles,  nay,  feeling 
secretly  that  it  would  be  hardly  fair  in  him 
to  disregard  such  earnestness.  Now,  if  God 
has  anywhere  said  that  unbelieving  earnest- 
ness and  the  unbelieving  use  of  means  is 
the  way  of  procuring  faith,  I  cannot  object 
to  such  proceeding  on  your  part.  But  I  do 
not  find  that  he  has  said  so,  or  that  the 
apostles  in  dealing  with  inquirers  set  them 


118  BELIEVE  JUST  NOW 

upon  this  preliminary  process  for  acquiring 
faith.  I  find  that  the  apostles  shut  up 
their  hearers  to  immediate  faith  and  re- 
pentance, bringing  them  face  to  face  with 
the  great  object  of  faith,  and  commanding 
them  in  the  name  of  the  living  God  to  be- 
lieve, just  as  Jesus  commanded  the  man 
with  the  withered  arm  to  stretch  out  his 
hand.  The  man  was  thoroughly  helpless, 
yet  he  is,  on  the  spot,  commanded  to  do 
the  very  thing  which  he  could  least  of  all 
do,  the  thing  which  Jesus  only  could  enable 
him  to  do.  The  Lord  did  not  give  him  any 
directions  as  to  a  preliminary  work,  or  pre- 
paratory efforts,  and  struggles,  and  using 
of  means.  These  are  man's  attempts  to 
bridge  over  the  great  gulf  by  human  appli- 
ances ;  man's  ways  of  evading  the  awful 
question  of  his  own  utter  impotence;  man's 
unscriptural  devices  for  sliding  out  of  in- 
ability into  ability,  out  of  unbelief  into  faith ; 
man's  plan  for  helping  God  to  save  him ; 
man's  self-made  ladder  for  climbing  up  a 


BELIEVE  JCST  NOW  119 

little  way  out  of  the  horrible  pit,  in  the 
hope  that  God  will  so  commiserate  his  ear- 
nest struggles  as  to  do  all  the  rest  that  is 
needed. 

Now  God  has  commanded  all  men  every- 
where to  repent ;  but  he  has  nowhere  given 
us  any  directions  for  obtaining  repentance. 
God  has  commanded  sinners  to  believe 
but  he  has  not  prescribed  for  them  any 
preparatory  steps  or  process  by  means  of 
wrhich  he  may  be  induced  to  give  them 
something  which  he  is  not  from  the  first 
most  willing  to  do.  It  is  thus  that  he 
shuts  them  up  to  faith, by  "concluding  them 
in  unbelief."  It  is  thus  that  he  brings 
them  to  feel  both  the  greatness  and  the 
guilt  of  their  inability ;  and  so*  constrains 
them  to  give  up  every  hope  of  doing  any 
thing  to  save  themselves  ; — driving  them 
out  of  every  refuge  of  lies,  and  shewing 
them  that  these  prolonged  efforts  of  theirs 
are  hindrances,  not  helps,  and  are  just  so 
many  rejections  of  his  own  immediate  help, 


120  BELIEVE  JUST  NOW. 

—so  many  distrustful  attempts  to  persuade 
him  to  do  what  he  is  already  most  willing 
to  do  in  their  behalf. 

The  great  manifestation  of  self-righteous- 
ness, is  this  struggle  to  believe.  Believing 
is  not  a  work,  but  a  ceasing  from  work  ; 
and  this  struggle  to  believe,  is  just  the  sin- 
ner's attempt  to  make  a  work  out  of  that 
which  is  no  work  at  all,  to  make  a  labour 
out  of  that  which  is  a  resting  from  labour. 
Sinners  will  not  let  go  their  hold  of  their 
former  confidences  and  drop  into  Christ's 
arms.  Why  ?  Because  they  still  trust 
these  confidences,  and  do  not  trust  him  who 
speaks  to  them  in  the  gospel.  Instead, 
therefore,  of  encouraging  you  to  embrace 
more  and  more  earnestly  these  prelimi- 
nary efforts,  I  tell  you  they  are  all  the  sad 
indications  of  self-righteousness.  They  take 
for  granted  that  Christ  has  not  done  his 
work  sufficiently,  and  that  God  is  not  will- 
ing to  give  you  faith  till  you  have  plied 
him  with  the  arguments  and  importunities 


BELIEVE  JUST  MOW.  12  i 

of  months  or  years.  God  is  at  tkis  mcment 
willing  to  bless  you  ;  and  these  struggles  of 
yours  are  not,  as  you  fancy,  humble  at- 
tempts on  your  part  to  take  the  blessing, 
but  proud  attempts  either  to  put  it  from 
you,  or  to  get  hold  of  it  in  some  way  of 
your  own.  You  cannot,  with  all  your 
struggles,  make  the  Holy  Spirit  more  will- 
ing to  give  you  faith  than  he  is  at  this 
moment.  But  your  self-righteousness  re- 
jects this  blessed  truth ;  and  if  I  were  to 
encourage  you  in  these  "  efforts,"  I  should 
be  fostering  your  self-righteousness  and 
your  rejection  of  this  grace  of  the  Spirit. 

You  say  you  cannot  change  your  heart  or 
do  any  good  thing.  So  say  I.  But  I  say 
more.  I  say  that  you  are  not  at  all  aware 
of  the  extent  of  your  helplessness  and  of  your 
guilt.  These  are  far  greater  and  far  worse 
than  you  suppose.  And  it  is  your  imper- 
fect view  of  these  that  leads  you  to  resort 
to  these  appliances.  You  are  not  yet  sen- 
sible of  your  weakness,  in  spite  of  all  you 


122  BELIEVE  JUST  NOW. 

say.  It  is  this  that  is  keeping  you  from 
God  and  God  from  you. 

God  commands  you  to  believe  and  to  re- 
pent. It  is  at  your  peril  that  you  attempt 
to  alter  this  imperative  and  immediate  obli- 
gation by  the  substitution  of  something 
preliminary,  the  performance  of  which  may 
perhaps  soothe  your  terrors  and  lull  your 
conscience  asleep,  but  will  not  avail  either 
to  propitiate  God  or  to  lift  you  into  a 
safer,  or  more  salvable  condition,  as  you 
imagine.  For  we  are  saved  by  faith,  not 
by  efforts  to  induce  "  an  unwilling  God " 
to  give  us  faith. 

God  commands  you  to  believe ;  and,  so 
long  as  you  do  not  believe,  you  are  making 
him  a  liar,  you  are  rejecting  the  truth, 
you  are  believing  a  lie  ;  for  unbelief  is,  in 
reality,  the  belief  in  a  lie.  Yes,  God 
commands  you  to  believe ;  and  your  not 
believing  is  your  worst  sin ;  and  it  is  by 
exhibiting  it  as  your  worst  sin,  that  God 
shuts  you  up  to  faith.     Now,  if  you  try  to 


BELIEVE  JUST  NOW.  123 

extenuate  this  sin ;  if  you  lay  this  flatter- 
ing unction  to  your  soul,  that,  by  making 
all  these  earnest  and  laborious  efforts  to 
believe,  you  are  lessening  this  awful  sin, 
and  rendering  your  unbelieving  state  a 
less  guilty  one  ;  you  are  deluding  your 
conscience,  and  thrusting  away  from  you 
that  divine  hand  which,  by  this  convic- 
tion of  unbelief,  is  shutting  you  up  to 
faith. 

I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  this 
better  stated  anywhere  than  in  Fuller's 
"Gospel  Worthy  of  All  Acceptation."  I 
give  just  a  few  sentences  : — "  It  is  the 
duty  of  ministers  not  only  to  exhort  their 
carnal  hearers  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ 
for  the  salvation  of  their  souls ;  but  IT  is 

AT  OUE  PERIL  TO  EXHORT  THEM  TO  ANY- 
THING   SHORT   OF  IT,  OR  WHICH   DOES  NOT 

involve  or  imply  it.  We  have  sunk 
into  such  a  compromising  way  of  dealing 
with  the  unconverted,  as  to  have  well  nigh 
lost  the  spirit  of  the  primitive  preachers  \ 


124  BELIEVE  JUST  NOW. 

and  hence  it  is  that  sinners  of  every  de- 
scription can  sit  so  quietly  as  they  do  in 
our   places    of  worship.      Christ   and    his 
apostles,  without  any  hesitation,  called  on 
sinners  to  repent  and  believe  the  gospel ; 
but   we,   considering   them   as    poor,  im- 
potent, and  depraved  creatures,  have  been 
disposed  to  drop  this  part  of  the  Christian 
ministry.     Considering  such  things  as  be- 
yond the  power  of  their  hearers,  they  seem 
to  have  contented  themselves  with  press- 
ing on  them  the  things  they  could  per- 
form, still  continuing  enemies   of  Christ ; 
such    as    behaving    decently    in    society, 
reading  the  Scriptures,  and  attending  the 
means  of  grace.     Thus  it  is  that  hearers 
of  this  description  sit  at  ease  in  our  con- 
gregations.    But  as  this  implies  no  guilt 
on  their  part,  they  sit  unconcerned,  con- 
ceiving that  all  that  is  required  of  them  is 
to  lie  in  the  way  and  wait  the  Lord's  time. 
But  is  this  the  religion  of  the  Scriptures  ? 
Where  does  it  appear  that  the  prophets 


BELIEVE  JUST  NOW.  125 

or  apostles  treated  that  kind  of  inability, 
which  is  merely  the  effect  of  reigning 
aversion,  as  affording  any  excuse?  And 
where  have  they  descended  in  their  exhor- 
tations to  things  which  might  be  done, 
and  the  parties  still  continue  the  enemies 
of  God?  Instead  of  leaving  out  every- 
thing of  a  spiritual  nature,  because  their 
hearers  could  not  find  in  their  hearts  to 
comply  with  it,  it  may  be  safely  affirmed 
that  they  exhorted  to  nothing  else,  treat- 
ing such  inability  not  only  as  of  no  ac- 
count with  regard  to  the  lessening  of  obli- 
gation, but  as  rendering  the  subjects  of  it 

worthy  of  the  severest  rebuke 

Repentance  toward  God,  and  faith  towards 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  are  allowed  to  be 
duties,  but  not  immediate  duties.  The 
sinner  is  considered  as  unable  to  comply 
with  them,  and  therefore  they  are  not 
urged  upon  him ;  but  instead  of  them,  he 
is  directed  to  pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit  to 

enable  him  to  repent  and  believe  !     This, 

l2 


126  BELIEVE  JUST  NOW. 

it  seems,  he  cayi  do,  notwithstanding  the 
aversion  of  his  heart  from  everything  of 
the  kind.  But  if  any  man  be  required  to 
pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit,  it  must  be  either 
sincerely  and  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  or  in- 
sincerely and  in  some  other  way.  The 
latter,  I  suppose,  will  be  allowed  to  be  an 
abomination  in  the  sight  of  God ;  te  can- 
not, therefore,  be  required  to  do  this  ;  and 
as  to  the  former,  it  is  just  as  difficult  and 
as  opposite  to  the  carnal  heart  as  repent- 
ance and  faith  themselves.  Indeed,  it 
amounts  to  the  same  thing ;  for  a  sincere 
desire  after  a  spiritual  blessing,  presented 
in  the  name  of  Jesus,  is  no  other  than  the 
"prayer  of  faith." 

The  great  thing  which  I  would  press 
upon  your  conscience  is  the  awful  guilt 
that  there  is  in  unbelief.  Continuance  in 
unbelief  is  continuance  in  the  very  worst 
of  sins  ;  and  continuance  in  it,  because  (as 
you  say)  you  cannot  help  it,  is  the  worst 
aggravation  of  your  sin.      The   habitual 


BELIEVE  JUST  NOW.  127 

drunkard  says,  he  "  cannot  help  it  ;*  the 
habitual  swearer  says,  he  "  cannot  help  it;" 
the  habitual  unbeliever  says,  he  "  cannot 
help  it."  Do  you  admit  the  drunkard's 
excuse  ?  Or  do  you  not  tell  him  that  it  is 
the  worst  feature  of  his  case,  and  that  he 
ought  to  be  utterly  ashamed  of  himself  for 
using  such  a  plea  ?  Do  you  say,  I  know 
you  can't  give  up  your  drunken  habits,  but 
you  can  go  and  pray  to  God  to  enable  you 
to  give  up  these  habits,  and  perhaps  God 
will  hear  you  and  enable  you  to  do  so, 
What  would  this  be  but  to  tell  him  to  go 
on  drinking  and  praying  alternately ;  and 
that,  possibly,  God  may  hear  his  drunken 
prayers,  and  give  him  sobriety  ?  You 
would  not  deal  with  drunkenness  in  this 
way  ;  ought  you  to  deal  thus  with  unbelief? 
Ought  you  not  to  press  home  the  unutter- 
able guilt  of  unbelief ;  and  to  shew  a  sin- 
ner that,  when  he  says  I  cant  help  my  un- 
belief, he  is  uttering  his  most  dreadful  con- 
demnation, and  saying,  I  can't  help  distrust- 


128  BELIEVE  JUST  NOW. 

ing  God,  I  can't  help  hating  God,  1  can't 
help  making  God  a  liar ;  and  that  he  might 
just  as  well  say,  I  can't  help  stealing,  and 
lying,  and  swearing. 

Never  let  unbelief  be  spoken  of  as  a 
misfortune.  It  is  awfully  sinful;  and  its 
root  is  the  desperate  wickedness  of  the 
heart.  How  resolutely  evil  must  that 
heart  be,  when  it  will  not  even  believe  ! 
For  this  depravity  of  soul  and  need  of  a 
heavenly  Quickener,  cannot  palliate  our 
unbelief,  or  make  it  less  truly  the  sin 
of  sins.  If  our  helplessness  and  hardness 
of  heart  lessened  our  guilt,  then  the  more 
wicked  we  became,  we  should  be  the  less  re- 
sponsible and  the  less  guilty.  The  sinner 
who  loves  sin  so  much  that  he  "  can-not" 
part  with  it,  is  the  most  guilty  of  all.  The 
man  who  says,  I  "  cannot"  love  God,  is  pro- 
claiming himself  one  of  the  worst  of  sin- 
ners ;  but  he  who  says,  I  "  cannot"  even 
believe,  is  taking  to  himself  a  guilt  which 


BELIEVE  JUST  NOW.  129 

we  may  truly  call  the  darkest  and  most 
damnable  of  all. 

Oh  the  unutterable  guilt  involved  even 
in  one  moment's  unbelief — one  single  act 
of  an  unbelieving  soul !  How  much  more 
in  the  continuous  unbelief  of  twenty  or 
sixty  years  !  To  steal  once  is  bad  enough, 
how  much  more  to  be  a  thief  by  habit  and 
repute  !  We  think  it  bad  enough  when  a 
man  is  overtaken  with  drunkenness,  how 
much  more  when  we  have  to  say  of  him,  he 
is  never  sober.  Such  is  our  charge  against 
the  man  who  has  not  yet  known  Christ. 
He  is  a  continuous  unbeliever.  His  life  is 
one  unbroken  course  of  unbelief,  and  hence 
of  false  worship,   if  he  worships   at  all* 

*  There  is  a  tendency  among  some  to  undervalue 
doctrine,  to  exact  morality  at  the  expense  of  theology, 
and  to  deny  the  importance  of  a  soTind  creed.  I  do 
not  doubt  that  a  sound  creed  has  often  covered  an  un- 
sound life,  and  that  "much creed,  little  faith,"  is  true 
of  multitudes.  But  when  we  hear  it  said,  "  Such  a 
man  is  far  gone  in  error,  hut  his  heart  is  in  its  right 
place ;  he  disbelieves  the  substitution  on  the  cross, 


130  BELIEVE  JUST  NOW. 

Every  new  moment  is  a  new  act  of  unbe- 
lief ;  a  new  commission  of  the  worst  of  sins  ; 
the  sin  of  sins  ; — a  sin  in  comparison  with 

but  he  rests  on  Christ  himself," — we  wonder,  and  ask, 
What  then  was  the  Bible  written  for  ?  It  may  be  (if 
this  be  the  case)  a  book  of  thought  like  Bacon's  No- 
vum Organum,  but  it  is  no  standard  of  truth,  no  infalli- 
ble expression  of  the  mind  of  an  infallible  being ! 
The  solemnity  with  which  that  book  affirms  the  one- 
ness of  truth,  and  the  awful  severity  with  which  it 
condemns  every  departure  from  the  truth,  as  a  direct 
attack  on  God  himself,  shew  us  the  danger  of  saying 
that  a  man's  heart  may  be  in  its  right  place  though 
his  head  contains  a  creed  of  error.  Faith  and  unbe- 
lief are  not  mere  mental  manipulations,  to  which  no 
moral  value  is  attached.  Doctrine  is  not  a  mere  form 
of  thought  or  phase  of  opinion.  Within  what  limits 
such  might  have  been  the  case  had  there  been  no 
revelation,  1  do  not  say.  But,  with  a  revelation,  all 
mental  transactions  as  to  truth  and  error  assume  a 
moral  character,  with  which  the  highest  responsibility 
is  connected ;  their  results  have  a  moral  value,  and 
are  linked  with  consequences  of  the  most  momentous 
kind.  On  true  doctrine  rests  the  worship  of  the  true 
God.  From  error  springs  the  worship  of  a  false  God. 
If,  then,  Jehovah  is  a  jealous  God,  not  giving  his  glory 


BELIEVE  JUST  NOW.  131 

winch  stealing,  and  drunkenness,  and  mur- 
der, awful  as  they  are,  become  as  trifles. 

Let  the  thought  of  this  guilt,  0  anxious 
soul,  cut  your  conscience  to  the  quick ! 
Oh  tremble  as  you  think  of  what  it  is  to 
be,  not  for  a  day  or  an  hour,  for  a  whole  life- 
time, AN  UNBELIEVING  MAN  ! 

to  another,  unbelief  must  be  one  of  the  worst  of  sins  ; 
and  error  not  only  a  deadly  poison  to  the  soul  receiv- 
ing it,  but  hateful  to  God  as  blasphemy  against  him- 
self, and  the  same  in  nature  as  the  blind  theologies  of 
paganism,  on  which  is  built  the  worship  of  Baal,  or 
Brahm,  or  Jupiter.  The  real  root  of  all  unbelief  is 
atheism.  Man's  guilty  conscience  modifies  this,  turns 
it  into  idolatry;  or  his  sentimental  nature  modifies  it, 
and  turns  it  into  pantheism.  The  fool's  "  No  God  "  is 
really  the  root  of  all  unbelief. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   WANT   OF   POWEK  TO   BELIEYK. 

Ezek.  xxxvi.  26-37.        Acts  v.  31.  Eph.  iii.  20. 

Luke  xi.  9-13.  1  Cor.  ii.  3,  5.  1  Tim  i.  14. 

John  i.  12.  2  Cor.  xii.  9.  James  i.  5, 6. 

You  say,  I  know  all  these  things,  yet  they 
bring  me  no  peace. 

I  doubt  much  in  that  case  whether  you 
do  know  them ;  and  I  should  like  you  to 
begin  to  doubt  upon  this  point.  You  take 
for  granted  much  too  easily  that  you  know 
them.  Seeing  they  do  not  bring  to  your 
soul  the  peace  which  God  says  they  are 
sure  to  do,  your  wisest  way  would  be  to 
suspect  the  correctness  of  your  knowledge. 
If  a  trusty  physician  prescribes  a  sure  medi- 
cine for  some  complaint,  and  if  on  trial  I 


THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE.         1  33 

find  that  what  I  have  taken  does  me  no 
good,  I  begin  to  suspect  that  I  have  got: 
some  wrong  medicine  instead  of  that  which 
he  prescribed. 

Now  "are  you  sure  that  the  truth  which,, 
you  say  you  know,  is  the  very  gospel  of  the- 
grace  of  God  ?  Or  is  it  only  something  Like 
it  ?  And  may  not  the  reason  of  your  get- 
ting no  peace  from  that  which  you  believe, 
just  be,  because  it  contains  none  ?  You 
have  got  hold  of  many  of  the  good  things,, 
but  you  have  missed,  perhaps,  the  one  thing 
which  made  it  a  joyful  sound  ?  You  be- 
lieve  perhaps  the  whole  gospel,  save  the 
one  thing  which  maks*  it  good  news  to  a 

sinner  ?     You  see  the  cross  as  bringing-  sal- 
es   o 

vation  very  near  ;  but  not  so  absolutely 
close  as  to  be  in  actual  contact  with  you  as. 
you  are  ;  not  so  entirely  close  but  that 
there  is  a  little  space,  just  a  handbreadth 
or  a  hairbreadth,  to  be  made  up  by  your 
own  prayers,  or  efforts,  or  feelings  ?  "  Every- 
thing," you  say,  "  is  complete ;  but,  then, 

M 


134         THE  WANT  OF  TOWER  TO  BELIEVE. 

that  want  of  feeling  in  myself !  Ah,  there 
it  is  !  Thei  e  is  the  little  unfinished  bit  of 
Christ's  work  which  you  are  trying  to 
finish,  or  to  persuade  him  by  your  prayers, 
to  finish  for  you  !  That  want  of  feeling  is 
the  little  inch  of  distance  which  you  have 
to  get  removed  before  the  completeness  of 
Christ's  work  is  available  for  you  ! 

The  consciousness  of  insensibility,  like 
the  sense  of  guilt,  ought  to  be  one  of  your 
reasons  for  trusting  him  the  more,  whereas 
you  make  it  a  reason  for  not  trusting  him 
at  all.  Would  a  child  treat  a  father  or 
a  mother  thus  ?  Would  it  make  its  bodily 
weakness  a  reason  for  distrusting  parental 
love  ?  Would  it  not  feel  that  that  weak- 
ness was  thoroughly  known  to  the  parent, 
and  was  just  the  very  thing  that  was  draw- 
ing out  more  love  and  skill  ?  A  stronger 
child  would  need  less  care  and  tenderness. 
But  the  poor  helpless  palsied  one  would  be 
of  all  others  the  likeliest  to  be  pitied  and 
watched  over.     Deal  thus  with  Christ ;  and 


THE  WANT  OF  FOWfi.1t  TO  BELIEVE.  135 

make  that  hardness  of  heart  an  additional 
reason  for  trusting  him,  and  for  prizing  his 
finished  work. 

This  state  of  mind  shews  that  you  are 
not  believing  the  right  thing ;  but  some- 
thing else  which  will  not  heal  your  hurt ; 
or,  at  least,  that  you  are  mixing  up  some- 
thing wTith  the  right  thing,  which  will 
neutralise  all  its  healing  properties. 

You  must  begin  at  the  beginning  once 
more  ;  and  go  back  to  the  simplest  elements 
of  heavenly  truth,  which  are  wrapped  up 
in  the  great  facts  that  Jesus  died  and  rose 
again;  facts  too  little  understood,  nay,  un- 
dervalued by  many ;  facts  to  which  the 
apostles  attached  such  vast  importance, 
and  on  which  they  laid  so  much  stress ; 
facts  out  of  which  the  primitive  believers, 
without  the  delay  of  weeks  or  months,  ex- 
tracted their  peace  and  joy. 

You  say,  I  cannot  believe.  Let  us  look 
into  this  complaint  of  yours. 

I  know  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  as  indis- 


136         THE  WANT  OF  TOWER  TO  BELIEVE. 

pensable  to  jour  believing,  as  is  Christ 
in  order  to  your  being  pardoned.  The 
Holy  Spirit's  work  is  direct  and  power- 
ful ;  and  yon  will  not  rid  yourself  of  your 
difficulties  by  trying  to  persuade  yourself 
that  his  operations  are  all  indirect,  and 
merely  those  of  a  teacher  presenting  truth 
to  you.  Salvation  for  the  sinner  is  Christ's 
work  ;  salvation  in  the  sinner  is  the  Spirit's 
work.  Of  this  internal  salvation  he  is  the 
beginner  and  the  ender.  He  works  in  you, 
in  order  to  your  believing,  as  truly  as  he 
works  in  you  after  you  have  believed,  and 
in  consequence  of  your  believing. 

This  doctrine,  instead  of  being  a  dis- 
couragement, is  one  of  unspeakable  en- 
couragement to  the  sinner;  and  he  will 
acknowledge  this,  if  he  knows  himself  to  be 
the  thoroughly  helpless  being  which  the 
Bible  says  he  is.  If  he  is  not  totally  de- 
praved, he  will  feel  the  doctrine  of  the 
Spirit's  a  hindrance,  no  doubt ;  but  as,  in 
that  case.,  he  will  be  able  to  save  himself 


THE  WANT  OF  TOWER  TO  BELIEVE.  137 

without  much  assistance,  he  might  just 
set  aside  the  Spirit  altogether,  and  work 
his  way  to  heaven  without  his  help  ! 

The  truth  is,  that  without  the  Spirit's 
direct  and  almighty  help,  there  could  be  no 
hope  for  a  totally  depraved  being  at  alL 

You  speak  of  this  inability  to  believe  as 
if  it  were  some  unprovided  for  difficulty ; 
and  as  if  the  discovery  of  it  had  sorely  cast 
you  down.  You  would  not  have  so  des- 
ponded had  you  found  that  you  could 
believe  of  yourself,  without  the  Spirit ;  and 
it  would  greatly  relieve  you  to  be  told  that 
you  could  dispense  with  the  Spirit's  help  in 
this  matter.  If  this  would  relieve  you,  it 
is  plain  that  you  have  no  confidence  in  the 
Spirit;  and  you  wish  to  have  the  power 
inyour  own  hands,  because  you  believe  your 
own  willingness  to  be  much  greater  than 
his.  Did  you  but  know  the  blessed  truth, 
that  his  willingness  far  exceeds  yours,  you 
would  rejoice  that  th'e  power  was  in  his. 

hands  rather  than  in  your  own.    You  would 

m2 


]  oS         THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE. 

feel  far  more  certain  of  attaining  the  end 
desired  when  the  strength  needed  is  in 
hands  so  infinitely  gracious ;  and  you  would 
feel  that  the  man  who  told  you  that  you 
had  all  the  needed  strength  in  yourself, 
was  casting-  down  your  best  hope,  and  rob- 
bing you  of  a  heavenly  treasure. 

How  eagerly  some  grasp  at  the  idea, 
that  they  can  believe,  and  repent,  and  turn 
of  themselves,  as  if  this  were  consolation  to 
the  troubled  spirit  I  as  if  this  were  the  un- 
ravelling of  its  dark  perplexities !  Is  it 
comfort  to  persuade  yourself  that  you  are 
not  wholly  without  strength?  Can  you, 
by  lessening  the  sum  total  of  your  depravity 
and  inability,  find  the  way  to  peace  ?  Is  it 
a  relief  to  your  burdened  spirit  to  be  de- 
livered from  the  necessity  of  being  wholly 
indebted  to  the  Spirit  of  God  for  faith  and 
repentance  ?  Will  it  rescue  you  from  the 
bitterness  of  despair  to  be  told  that  yon 
had  not  enough  strength  left  to  enable  you 
to  love  God,  yet  that,  in  virtue  of  some  little 


THE  "WANT  OF  TOWER  TO  BELIEVE.  139 

remaining  power,  you  can  perform  this  least 
of  all  religious  acts,  believing  on  the  Son  of 
God? 

If  such  be  your  feeling,  it  is  evident  that 
you  do  not  know  the  extent  of  your  own 
disease,  nor  the  depths  of  your  evil  heart, 
you  don't  understand  the  good  news  brought 
to  you  by  the  Son  of  God, — of  complete 
deliverance  from  all  that  oppresses  you, 
whether  it  be  guilt  or  helplessness.  You 
have  forgotten  the  blessed  announcement, 
"In  the  Lord  have  I  righteousness  and 
strength"  (Isa.  xlv.  24).  Your  strength,  as 
well  as  your  righteousness,  is  in  another ; 
yet,  while  you  admit  the  former,  you  deny 
the  latter.  You  have  forgotten,  too,  the 
apostle's  rejoicing  in  the  strength  of  his 
Lord  ;  his  feeling  that  when  he  was  weak 
then  he  was  strong  ;  and  his  determination 
to  glory  in  his  infirmities,  that  the  power  of 
Christ  might  rest  upon  him,  (2  Cor.  xii.  9). 

If  you  understand  the  genuine  gospel  in 
all  its  freeness,  you  would  feel  that  the  man 


14)0         THE  "WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE. 

who  tries  to  persuade  you  that  you  have 
strength  enough  left  to  do  without  the 
Spirit,  is  as  great  an  enemy  of  the  cross, 
and  of  your  soul,  as  the  man  who  wants  to 
make  you  believe  that  you  are  not  alto- 
gether guilty,  but  have  some  remaining 
goodness,  and  therefore  do  not  need  to  be 
wholly  indebted  for  pardon  to  the  blood 
and  righteousness  of  Immanuel.  "Without 
strength"  is  as  literal  a  description  of  your 
state,  as  "without  goodness."  If  you  under- 
stand the  gospel,  the  consciousness  of  your 
total  helplessness  would  just  be  the  dis- 
covery that  you  are  the  very  sinner  to 
whom  the  great  salvation  is  sent ;  that  your 
inability  was  all  foreseen  and  provided  for, 
and  that  you  are  in  the  very  position  which 
needs,  which  calls  for,  and  which  shall  re- 
ceive, the  aid  of  the  Almighty  Spirit. 

Till  you  feel  yourself  in  this  extremity 
of  weakness,  you  are  not  in  a  condition  (if 
I  may  say  so)  to  receive  the  heavenly  help. 
Your  idea  of  remaining  ability  is  the  very 


THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE.         141 

thing  that  repels  the  help  of  the  Spirit, 
just  as  any  idea  of  remaining  goodness 
thrusts  away  the  propitiation  of  the  Saviour. 
It  is  your  not  seeing  that  you  have  no 
strength  that  is  keeping  you  from  believing. 
So  long  as  you  think  you  have  some  strength 
you  will  be  trying  to  use  that  strength  in 
doing  something, — and  specially  in  perform- 
ing to  your  own  and  Satan's  satisfaction, 
that  great  act  or  exercise  of  soul  called 
"  faith."  But  when  you  find  out  that  you 
have  no  strength  left,  you  will,  in  blessed 
despair,  cease  to  work, — and  (ere  you  are 
aware) — believe  !  For,  if  believing  be  not  a 
ceasing  to  work,  it  is  at  least  the  necessary 
and  immediate  result  of  it.  You  expended 
your  little  stock  of  imagined  strength  in 
holding  fast  the  ropes  of  self-righteousness, 
but  now,  when  the  conviction  of  having  no 
strength  at  all  is  forced  upon  you,  you 
drop  into  the  arms  of  Jesus.  But  this  you 
will  never  do,  so  long  as  you  fancy  that 
you  have  strength  to  believe. 


1  42         THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEV2. 

Paul,  after  many  years'  believing,  still 
drew  his  strength  from  Christ  alone ;  how 
much  more  must  you  and  others  who  have 
never  yet  believed  at  all  %  He  said,  "  I 
take  pleasure  in  my  infirmities!'  that  is, 
my  want  of  strength.  You  say,  I  am  cast 
down  because  of  it ! 

They  who  tell  you  that  you  have  some 
power  left,  and  that  you  are  to  use  that 
power  in  believing  and  repenting,  are 
enemies  of  your  peace,  and  subverters  of 
the  gospel.  They  in  fact  say  to  you  that 
faith  is  a  work,  and  that  you  are  to  do  that 
work  in  order  to  be  saved.  They  mock 
you.  In  yielding  to  them  you  are  main- 
taining that  posture  which  vexes  and  re- 
sists the  Spirit  which  is  striving  within 
you  ;  you  are  proudly  asserting  for  fallen 
man  a  strength  which  belongs  only  to  the 
unfallen ;  you  are  denying  the  completeness 
of  the  divine  provision  made  for  the  sinner 
in  the  fulness  of  Him  in  whom  it  pleased 
the  Father  that  all  fulness  should  dwelL 


THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE.         143 

The  folio  wing  sentence  from  an  old  writer 
is  worth  pondering  : — 

"  Ask  him  what  it  is  he  finds  makes  be- 
lieving difficult  to  him  ?  Is  it  unwilling- 
ness to  be  justified  and  saved  ?  Is  it  un- 
willingness to  be  so  saved  by  Jesus  Christ, 
to  the  praise  of  God's  grace  in  him,  and  to 
the  voiding  of  all  boasting  in  himself? 
This  he  will  surely  deny.  Is  it  a  distrust 
of  the  truth  of  the  gospel  record  %  This  he 
dare  not  own.  Is  it  a  doubt  of  Christ's 
ability  or  good-will  to  save?  This  is  to 
contradict  the  testimony  of  God  in  the 
gospel.  Is  it  because  he  doubts  of  an  in- 
terest in  Christ  and  his  redemption  ?  You 
tell  him  that  believing  on  Christ  makes  up 
the  interest  in  him.  If  he  say  that  he  can- 
not believe  on  Jesus  Christ,  because  of  the 
difficulty  of  the  acting  this  faith,  and  that 
a  divine  power  is  needful  to  draw  it  forth, 
which  he  finds  not,  you  tell  him  that  be- 
lieving in  Jesus  Christ  is  no  work,  but  a 
resting  on  Jesus  Christ ;  and  that  this  pre- 


144         THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE. 

tence  is  as  unreasonable*  as  that  if  a  man 
wearied  with  a  journey,  and  who  is  not  able 
to  go  one  step  farther,  should  argue,  '  I  am 
so  tired  that  I  am  not  able  to  lie  down,' 
when,  indeed,  he  can  neither  stand  nor  go. 
The  poor  wearied  sinner  can  never  believe 
on  Jesus  Christ  till  he  finds  he  can  do  no- 
thing for  himself,  and  in  his  first  believing 
doth  always  apply  himself  to  Christ  for 
salvation,  as  a  man  hopeless  and  helpless 
in  himself.  And  by  such  reasonings  with 
him  from  the  gospel,  the  Lord  will  (as  he 
hath  often  done)  convey  faith,  and  joy,  and 
peace,  by  believing."* 

Your  puzzling  yourself  with  this  "  can- 
not, "  shews  that  you  are  proceeding  in  a 
wrong  direction.  You  are  still  labouring 
under  the  idea  that  this  believing  is  a 
work  to  be  done  by  you,  and  not  the  sim- 
ple acknowledgment  of  a  work  done  by 
another.  You  would  fain  do  something  in 
order  to  get  peace,  and  you  think  that  if 
*  Trail. 


THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE.         1  4f 

you  could  ouly  do  this  great  thing  called 
faith,  God  would  reward  you  with  peace, 
In  this  view,  faith  is  a  price  as  well  as  a 
work  ;  whereas  it  is  neither  ;  but  a  ceasing 
from  work  and  from  attempting  to  pay  for 
salvation.  Faith  is  not  a  climbing  of  the 
mountain  ;  but  a  ceasing  to  attempt  it, 
and  allowing  Christ  to  carry  you  up  in  his 
arms. 

You  seem  to  think  that  it  is  your  own 
act  of  faith  that  is  to  save  you ;  whereas 
it  is  the  object  of  your  faith,  without  which 
your  own  act  of  faith,  however  well  per- 
formed, is  nothing.  Supposing  that  this 
believing  is  a  mighty  work,  you  ask,  "  How 
am  I  to  get  it  properly  performed  ?"  But 
your  peace  is  not  to  come  from  any  such 
performance,  but  entirely  from  Him  to 
whom  the  Father  is  pointing,  "  Behold  my 
servant  whom  I  have  chosen."  As  if  he 
would  say,  "  Look  at  him  as  Israel  looked 
a,t  the  serpent  of  brass  :  forget  everything 

about  yourself, — your  faith,  your  frames 

N 


146        THE  WAET  OF  TOWER  TO  BELIEVE. 

your  repentance,  your  prayers, — and  look 
at  Him."  It  is  in  Him,  and  not  in  your 
poor  act  of  faith,  that  salvation  lies.  It  is 
in  Him  and  in  his  boundless  love  that  you 
you  are  to  find  your  resting-place.  Out  of 
Him,  not  out  of  your  exercise  of  soul  con- 
cerning him,  that  peace  is  to  come.  Look- 
ing at  your  own  faith  will  only  minister  to 
your  self-righteousness  ;  it  is  like  letting 
your  left  hand  know  what  your  right  hand 
doeth.  To  seek  for  satisfaction  as  to  the 
quality  or  quantity  of  your  faith,  before 
you  will  take  comfort  from  Christ's  work, 
is  to  proceed  upon  the  supposition  that 
that  work  is  not  sufficient  of  itself  to  give 
you  comfort,  as  soon  as  received  ;  and  that 
until  made  sufficient  by  a  certain  amount 
of  religious  feeling,  it  contains  no  comfort 
to  the  sinner  ; — in  short,  that  the  com- 
forting or  comfortable  ingredient  is  an 
indescribable  something,  depending  for  its 
efficiency  ohiefly  upon  the  superior  ex- 
cellence of  your  own  act  of  faith,  and  the 


THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE.         147 

success  of  your  own  exertions  in  putting  it 
forth. 

Your  inability,  then,  does  not  lie  in  the 
impossibility  of  your  performing  aright  this 
great  act  of  believing,  but  of  ceasing  from 
all  such  self-righteous  attempts  to  perform 
any  act,  or  do  anything  whatever,  in  order 
to  your  being  saved.  So  that  the  real 
truth  is,  that  you  have  not  yet  seen  such 
a  sufficiency  in  the  one  great  work  of  the 
Son  of  God  upon  the  cross,  as  to  lead  you 
utterly  to  discontinue  your  wretched  efforts 
to  work  out  something  of  your  own.  As 
soon  as  the  Holy  Spirit  shews  you  the 
entire  sufficiency  of  the  great  propitiation, 
for  the  sinner,  just  as  he  is,  you  cease  your 
attempts  to  act  or  work,  and  take,  instead 
of  all  such  exercises  of  yours,  that  which 
Christ  has  done.  The  Spirit's  work  is  not 
to  enable  a  man  to  do  something  which 
will  save  him  or  help  to  save  him,  but  so 
to  detach  him  from  all  his  own  exertions 
and  performances,  whether  good,  bad,  or 


148         THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELTEVE. 

indifferent,  that  lie  should  be  content  with 
the  salvation  which  the  Saviour  of  the  lost 
has  finished. 

Remember  that  what  you  call  your  in- 
ability God  calls  your  guilt ;  and  that  this 
inability  is  a  wilful  thing.  It  was  not  put 
into  you  by  God ;  for  he  made  you  with 
the  full  power  of  doing  everything  he  tells 
you  to  do.  You  disobey  and  disbelieve 
willingly.  No  one  forces  you  to  do  either. 
Your  rejection  of  Christ  is.  the  FREE  AND 
DELIBERATE  CHOICE  OF  YOUR  OWN  WILL. 

That  inability  of  yours  is  a  fearfully 
wicked  thing.  It  is  the  summing  up  of 
your  depravity.  It  makes  you  more  like 
the  devil  than  almost  anything  else.  In- 
capable of  loving  God,  or  even  of  believ- 
ing on  his  Son !  Capable  only  of  hating 
him,  and  of  rejecting  Christ !  O  dreadful 
guilt !  "Unutterable  wickedness  of  the 
human  heart .! 

Is  it  really  the  cannot  that  is  keeping 
you  back  from  Christ  \     No  ;  it  is  the  will 


THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE.  149 

not.  You  have  not  got  the  length  of  the 
cannot.  It  is  the  will  not  that  is  the  real 
and  present  barrier.  "Ye  will  not  come 
to  me  that  ye  might  have  life,"  (John  v. 
40).  "Whosoever  will,  let  him  take  the 
water  of  life  freely/'  (Rev.  xxii.  17). 

If  your  heart  would  speak  out  it  would 
say;  "  Well,  after  all,  I  cannot,  and  God 
will  not."  And  what  is  this  but  saying, 
"  I  have  a  hard-hearted  God  to  deal  with, 
who  won't  help  or  pity  me?'  Whatever 
your  rebellious  heart  may  say,  Christ's 
words  are  true,  "  Ye  will  not."  What  he 
spoke  when  weeping  over  impenitent  Jeru- 
salem he  speaks  to  you,  "  I  would  but  ye 
would  not"  (Matt,  xxiii.  37).  " They  are 
fearful  words,"  writes  Dr  Owen,  "  '  ye  would 
not.'  Whatever  is  pretended,  it  is  will  and 
stubbornness  that  He  at  the  bottom  of  this 
refusal."  And  oh!  what  must  be  the 
strength  as  well  as  the  guilt  of  this  un- 
belief, when  nothing  but  the  almightiness 

of  the  Holy  Ghost  can  root  it  out  of  you  ? 

n2 


1  50         THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE. 

You  are  perplexed  by  the  doctrine  of 
God's  sovereignty  and  election.  I  wonder 
that  any  man  believing  in  a  God  should 
be  perplexed  by  these.  For  if  there  be  a 
God,  a  "  King,  eternal,  immortal,  and  in- 
visible," he  cannot  but  be  sovereign, — and 
he  cannot  but  do  according  to  his  own 
will,  and  choose  according  to  his  own  pur- 
pose. You  may  dislike  these  doctrines,  but 
you  can  only  get  quit  of  them  by  denying 
altogether  the  existence  of  an  infinitely 
wise,  glorious,  and  powerful  Being.  God 
would  not  be  God  were  he  not  thus 
absolutely  sovereign  in  his  present  doings 
and  his  eternd  pre-arrangoments. 

But  how  would  it  rid  you  of  your  per- 
plexities to  get  quit  of  sovereignty  and 
alection?  Suppose  these  were  set  aside, 
you  still  remain  the  same  depraved  and 
helpless  being  as  before.  The  truth  is,  that 
the  sinner's  real  difficulty  lies  neither  in 
sovereignty  nor  election,  but  in  h is  own 
depravity.     If  the  removal  of  these  "  hard 


THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE.  151 

doctrines  "  (as  some  call  them)  would  lessen 
his  own  sinfulness,  or  make  him  more  able 
to  believe  and  repent,  the  hardship  would 
lie  at  their  door  ;  but  if  not,  then  these 
doctrines  are  no  hindrance  at  all.  If  it  be 
God's  sovereignty  that  is  keeping  him  from 
coming  to  Christ,  the  sinner  has  serious 
matter  of  complaint  against  the  doctrine. 
But  if  it  be  his  own  depravity,  is  it  not 
foolish  to  be  objecting  to  a  truth  that  has 
never  thrown  one  single  straw  of  a  hin- 
drance in  the  way  of  his  return  to  God  ?  * 
Election  has  helped  many  a  soul  to  heaven  ; 

*  Yet  let  me  notice  a  way  of  speaking  of  this 
sovereignty  which  is  not  scriptural.  Some  tell  the 
anxious  sinner  that  the  first  thing  he  has  to  do,  in 
order  to  faith,  is  to  submit  to  this  sovereignty,  and  that 
when  he  has  done  so,  God  will  give  him  faith  !  This 
is  far  wrong  surely.  Submission  to  the  divine  sove- 
reignty is  one  of  the  highest  results  of  faith, — how  can 
it  be  preparatory  to  faith  ?  The  sinner  is  told  that  he 
14  cannot  believe  "  of  himself,  but  he  can  submit  him- 
self to  God's  sovereignty !  He  cannot  do  the  lowest 
thing,  but  ).e  can  do  the  highest ; — nay,  and  he  must 


152        THE  WANT  OF  POWER  TO  BELIEVE. 

but  never  yet  hindered  one.  Depravity  is 
the  hindrance  ;  election  is  God's  way  of 
overcoming  that  hindrance.  And  if  that 
hindrance  is  not  overcome  in  all,  but  only 
in  some,  who  shall  find  fault  ?  Was  God 
bound  to  overcome  it  in  all  1  Was  he 
bound  to  bring  every  man  to  Christ,  and 
to  pluck  every  brand  from  the  burning  ? 
Do  not  blame  God  for  that  which  belongs 
solely  to  yourself ;  nor  be  troubled  about 
His  sovereignty  when  the  real  cause  of 
trouble  is  your  own  desperately  wicked 
heart. 

begin  by  doing  the  highest,  in  order  to  prepare  him- 
self for  doing  the  lowest !  It  is  faith,  not  unbelief,  that 
will  thus  submit ;  and  yet  the  unconverted  sinner  is 
recommended  to  do,  and  to  do  in  unbelief,  the  highest 
act  of  faith !  This  surely  is  turning  theology  upside 
down. 


CHAPTER  XL 

INSENSIBILITY. 

.18. 

Jer.  iii.  22.               Matt. 

ir.  33,24. 

k  ii.  17. 

Luke  xix.  10.           2  Peter  iii.  9. 

You  say  that  you  do  not  feel  yourself  to 
be  a  sinner ;  that  you  are  not  "  anxious  " 
enough  ;  that  you  are  not  "  penitent  " 
enough. 

Be  it  so.  Let  me,  however,  ask  you 
such  questions  as  the  following  : — 

1.  Does  your  want  of  feeling  alter  the 
gospel  ?  Does  it  make  the  good  news  less 
free,  less  blessed,  less  suitable  ?  Is  it  not 
glad  tidings  of  God's  love  to  the  unworthy, 
the  unloveable,  the  insensible  ?  Your  not 
feeling  your  burdens  does  not  affect  the 
nature  of  the  gospel,  nor  change  the  gra- 


154  INSENSIBILITY. 

cious  character  of  Him  from  whom  it  comes. 
It  suits  you  as  you  are,  and  you  suit  it 
exactly.  It  comes  up  to  you  on  the  spot, 
and  says,  Here  is  a  whole  Christ  for  you, — • 
a  Christ  containing  eve^thing  you  need. 
Your  acquisition  of  feeling  would  not  qua- 
lify you  for  it,  nor  bring  it  nearer,  nor 
buy  its  blessings,  nor  make  you  more  wel- 
come, nor  persuade  God  to  do  anything 
for  you  what  he  is  not  at  this  moment  most 
willing  to  do. 

2.  Is  your  want  of  feeling  an  excuse  for 
your  unbelief?  Faith  does  not  spring 
out  of  feeling,  but  feeling  out  of  faith.  The 
less  you  feel  the  more  you  should  trust. 
You  cannot  feel  aright  till  you  have  be- 
lieved. As  all  true  repentance  has  its  root 
in  faith,  so  all  true  feeling  has  the  same. 
It  is  vain  for  you  to  attempt  to  reverse 
God's  order  of  things. 

3.  Is  your  want  of  feeling  a  reason  for 
your  staying  away  from  Christ  ?  A  sense 
of  want  should  lead  you  to  Christ,  and  not 


INSENSIBILITY. 


keep  you  away.  "  More  are  drawn  to 
Christ,"  says  old  Thomas  Shepherd,  "under 
a  sense  of  a  dead,  blind  heart,  than  by  all 
sorrows,  humiliations,  and  terrors."  The 
less  of  feeling  or  conviction  that  you  have, 
you  are  the  more  needy  ;  and  is  that  a 
reason  for  keeping  aloof  from  him  ?  In- 
stead of  being  less  fit  for  coming,  you  are 
more  fit.  The  blindness  of  Bartimeus  was 
his  reason  for  coming  to  Christ,  not  for 
staying  away.  If  you  have  more  blind- 
ness and  deadness  than  others,  you  have 
so  many  more  reasons  for  coming,  so  many 
fewer  for  standing  afar  off.  If  the  whole 
head  is  sick  and  the  whole  heart  faint,  you 
should  feel  yourself  the  more  shut  up  to 
the  necessity  of  coming, — and  that  imme- 
diately. Whatever  others  may  do  who 
have  convictions,  you  who  have  none  dare 
not  stay  away,  nor  even  wait  an  hour. 
You  must  come ! 

4.   Will  your  want  of  feeling  make  you 
less  welcome  to  Christ?     How  is   this? 


156  INSENSIBILITY. 

What  makes  you  think  so  ?  Has  he  said 
so,  or  did  he  act,  when  on  earth,  as  if  this 
were  his  rule  of  procedure  ?  Had  the 
woman  of  Sychar  any  feeling  when  he 
spoke  to  her  so  lovingly?  (John  iv.  10). 
Was  it  the  amount  of  conviction  in  Zac- 
cheus  that  made  the  Lord  address  him  so 
graciously,  "  Make  haste,  for  to-day  I  must 
abide  at  thy  house?"  The  balm  of  Gilead 
will  not  be  the  less  suitable  for  you,  nor 
the  physician  there  the  less  affectionate 
and  cordial,  because,  in  addition  to  other 
diseases,  you  are  afflicted  with  the  be- 
numbing palsy.  Your  greater  need  only 
gives  him  an  opportunity  of  shewing  the 
extent  of  his  fulness,  as  well  as  the  riches 
of  his  grace.  Come  to  him,  then,  just  be- 
cause you  do  not  feel.  "  Him  that  cometh 
to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out."  What- 
ever you  may  feel,  or  may  not  feel,  it  is 
still  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all 
acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into 
the  world  to  save-  sinners.     Do  not  limit 


INSENSIBILITY.  157 

the  grace  of  God,  nor  suspect  the  love  of 
Christ.  Confidence  in  that  grace  and  love  will 
do  everything  for  you  ;  want  of  confidence, 
nothing.  Christ  wants  you  to  come  ;  not  to" 
wait,  nor  to  stay  away. 

5.  Will  your  remaining  away  from 
Christ  remove  your  want  of  feeling  ?  No. 
It  will  only  make  it  worse  ;  for  it  is  a 
disease  which'  he  only  can  remove.  So 
that  a  double  necessity  is  laid  upon  you 
for  going  to  Him.  Others  who  feel  more 
than  you  may  linger.  You  cannot  afford 
to  do  so.  You  must  go  immediately  to 
Him  who  is  exalted  "  a  Prince  and  a 
Saviour,  to  give  repentance  to  Israel,  and 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,"  (Acts  v.  31).  See- 
ing that  distance  and  distrust  will  do  no- 
thing for  you,  try  what  "  drawing  near " 
and  confidence  will  do.  To  you,  though 
the  chief  of  sinners,  the  message  is,  "  Let 
us  draw  near,"  (Heb.  x.  22).  God  com- 
mands you  to  come,  without  any  further 
delay  or  preparation;  to  bring  with  you 


158  INSENSIBILITY. 

your  sins,  your  unbelief,  your  insensibility, 
your  heart,  your  will,  your  whole  man,  and 
to  put  them  into  Christ's  hands.  God  de- 
mands your  immediate  confidence  and  in- 
stant surrender  to  Christ.  "  Kiss  the  Son  " 
is  his  message,  (Psa.  ii.  12).  His  word  in- 
sists on  your  return, — "  Return  unto  the 
Lord  thy  God,"  (Hos.  xiv.  1).  It  shews 
you  that  the  real  cause  of  the  continuance 
of  this  distance  is  your  unwillingness  to 
let  Christ  save  you  in  his  own  way, — and 
a  desire  to  have  the  credit  of  removing 
your  insensibility  by  your  own  prayers  and 
tears. 

6.  Is  not  your  insensibility  one  of  your 
worst  sins.  A  hard-hearted  child  is  one  of 
the  most  hateful  of  beings.  You  may  pity 
and  excuse  many  things,  but  not  hard- 
heartedness.  "  Thou  art  the  man."  Thou 
art  the  hard-hearted  child  !  Cease  then  to 
mty  yourself,  and  learn  only  to  condemn. 
Give  this  sin  no  quarter.  Treat  it  not  as 
a  misfortune,  but  as  unmingled  guiltiness. 


INSENSIBILITY.  159 

You  may  call  it  a  disease  ;  but  remember 
that  it  is  an  inexcusable  sin.  It  is  one  great 
all-pervading  sin  added  to  your  innumer- 
able others.  This  should  shut  you  up  to 
Christ.  As  an  incurable  leper  you  must  go 
to  him  for  cure.  As  a  desperate  criminal, 
you  must  go  to  him  for  pardon.  Do  not, 
I  beseech  you,  add  to  this  awful  sin,  the 
yet  more  damning  sin  of  refusing  to  ac- 
knowledge Christ  as  the  healer  of  all  dis- 
eases, and  the  forgiver  of  all  iniquities. 

Repentance  is  only  to  be  got  from  Christ. 
Why  then  should  you  make  the  want  of  it 
a  reason  for  staying  away  from  him  ?  Go 
to  Him  for  it.  He  is  exalted  to  give  it. 
If  you  speak  of  "  waiting,"  you  only  shew 
that  you  are  not  sincere  in  your  desire  to 
have  it.  No  man  in  such  circumstances 
would  think  of  waiting.  Your  conviction 
of  sin  is  to  come  not  by  waiting,  but  by 
looking  ;  looking  to  Him  whom  your  sins 
have  crucified,  and  whom,  by  your  distrust 
and  unbelief,  you   are   crucifying   afresh. 


160  INSENSIBILITV. 

Is  it  not  written,  "  They  shall  look  on  me 
whom  they  have  pierced,  and  they  shall 
mourn  f  (Zech.  xii.  10). 

Beware  of  fancying  that  convictions  are 
to  save  yon,  or  that  they  are  to  be  desired 
for  their  own  sakes.  Tims  writes  an  old 
minister,  "  I  was  put  out  of  conceit  with 
legal  terrors ;  for  I  thought  they  were 
good,  and  only  esteemed  them  happy  that 
were  under  them  ;  they  came,  but  I  found 
they  did  me  ill ;  and  unless  the  Lord  had 
guided  me  thus,  I  think  I  should  have  died 
doating  after  them."  And  another  says, 
"  Sense  of  a  dead,  hard  heart  are  an  effec- 
tual means  to  draw  to  Christ ;  yea,  more 
effectual  than  any  other  can  be,  because  it 
is  the  poor,  the  blind,  the  naked,  the 
miserable,  that  are  invited." 

As  to  what  is  called  a  "  law-work,"  pre- 
paratory to  faith  in  Christ,  let  us  consult 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  There  we  have 
the  preaching  of  the  apostolic  gospel  and  the 
fruits  of  it,  in  the  conversion  of  thousands. 


INSENSIBILITY.  161 

We  have  several  inspired  sermons,  ad- 
dressed both  to  Jew  and  Gentile  ;  but  into 
none  of  these  is  the  law  introduced.  That 
which  pricked  the  hearts  of  the  three 
thousand  at  Pentecost  was  a  simple  nar- 
rative of  the  life,  death,  burial,  and  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  concluding 
with  these  awful  words,  which  must  have 
sounded  like  the  trumpet  of  doom  to  those 
who  heard  them,  "  Therefore  let  all  the 
house  of  Israel  know,  that  God  hath  made 
that  same  Jesus,  whom  ye  have  crucified, 
both  Lord  and  Christ,"  (Acts  ii.  36).  These 
were  words  more  terrible  than  law ;  more 
overwhelming  than  Sinai  heard.  Awful 
as  it  would  have  been  to  be  told,  "  Yo 
have  broken  the  whole  law  of  God  ;"  what 
was  this  to  being  told,  "  Ye  have  crucified 
his  Son  V  The  sin  of  crucifying  the  Lord 
of  glory  was  greater  than  that  of  breaking 
a  thousand  laws.  And  yet  in  that  very  deed 
of  consummate  wickedness  was  contained 

the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.     That  which 

02 


162  INSENSIBILITY. 

pronounced  the  sinner's  condemnation,  de- 
clared also  his  deliverance.  There  was  life 
in  that  death  ;  and  the  nails  which  fastened 
the  Son  of  God  to  the  cross,  let  out  the 
pent-up  stream  of  divine  love  upon  the 
murderers  themselves  ! 

The  gospel  was  the  apostolic  hammer  for 
breaking  hard  hearts  in  pieces  ;  for  produc- 
ing repentance  unto  life.  It  was  a  believed 
gospel  that  melted  the  obduracy  of  the 
self-righteous  Jew  ;  and  nothing  but  the 
good  news  of  God's  free  love,  condemning 
the  sin  yet  pardoning  the  sinner,  will,  in 
our  own  day,  melt  the  heart  and  "  soften 
human  rockwork  into  men."  "  Law  and 
terrors  do  but  harden  ;"  and  their  power, 
though  wielded  by  an  Elijah,  is  feeble  in 
comparison  with  that  of  a  preached  cross. 
"  O  blessed  cross  of  Christ,"  as  Luther, 
using  an  old  hymn,  used  to  say,  "  there  is 
no  wood  like  thine  !" 

The  word  "  repentance  "  signifies  in  the 
Greek,  "  change  of  mind  ;"  and  this  change 


INSENSIBILITY.  1 63 

the  Holy  Spirit  produces  in  connection 
with  the  gospel,  not  the  law.  "  Repent  and 
believe  the  gospel "  (Mark  i.  15),  does  not 
mean  "get  repentance  by  the  law,  and 
then  believe  the  gospel ;"  but  "  let  this 
good  news  about  the  kingdom  which  I  am 
preaching,  lead  you  to  change  your  views 
and  receive  the  gospel."  Repentance  being 
put  before  faith  here,  simply  implies,  that 
there  must  be  a  turning  from  what  is  false 
in  order  to  the  reception. of  what  is  true. 
If  I  would  turn  my  face  to  the  north,  I 
must  turn  it  from  the  south  ;  yet  I  should 
not  think  of  calling  the  one  of  these  pre- 
paratory to  the  other.  They  must,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  go  together.  Repentance 
then  is  not,  in  any  sense,  a  preliminary 
qualification  for  faith, — least  of  all  in  the 
sense  of  sorrow  for  sin.  "  It  must  be 
reckoned  a  settled  point,"  says  Calvin,* 
"that  repentance  not  only  immediately 
follows  upon  faith,  but  springs  out  of  it.  .  . 
*  Institutes,  B.  III.,  ch.  iii.  sect.  1. 


164  INSENSIBILITY. 

They  who  think  that  repentance  goes  be- 
fore faith,  instead  of  flowing  from  or  being 
produced  by  it,  as  fruit  from  a  tree,  have 
never  understood  its  nature/'  And  Dr 
Colquhoun  remarks,  "Justifying and  saving 
faith  is  the  mean  of  true  repentance ;  and 
this  repentance  is  not  the  mean  but  the 
end  of  that  faith/'* 

That  terror  of  conscience  may  go  before 
faith,  I  do  not  doubt.  But  such  terror  is 
very  unlike  Bible  repentance ;  and  its  tend- 
ency is  to  draw  men  away  from,  not  to,  the 
the  cross.  Alarms,  such  as  these,  are  not 
uncommon  among  unbelieving  men,  such 
as  Ahab  and  Judas.  They  will  be  heard 
with  awful  distinctness  in  hell ;  but  they 
are  not  repentance.  Sorrow  for  sin  comes 
from  "  apprehension  of  the  mercy  of  God 
in  Christ/'  from  the  sight  of  the  cross  and 
of  the  love  which  the  cross  reveals.     The 

*  View  of  Evangelical  Kepentance,  p.  164.  See 
the  whole  chapter  on  the  Priority  of  Saving  Faith  to 
Repentance. 


INSENSIBILITY.  165 

broken  and  the  contrite  heart  is  the  result 
of  our  believing  the  glad  tidings  of  God's 
foee  love,  in  the  death  and  resurrection  of 
his  Son.  Few  things  are  more  dangerous 
to  the  anxious  soul  than  the  endeavours  to 
get  convictions,  and  terrors,  and  humilia- 
tions, as  preliminaries  to  believing  the  gos- 
pel. They  who  would  tell  a  sinner  that 
the  reason  of  his  not  finding  peace  is  that 
he  is  not  anxious  enough,  nor  convicted 
enough,  nor  humbled  enough,  are  enemies 
to  the  cross  of  Christ.  They  who  would 
inculcate  a  course  of  prayer,  and  humilia- 
tion, and  self-examination,  and  dealing  with 
the  law,  in  order  to  believing  in  Christ, 
are  teaching  what  is  the  very  essence  of 
Popery  ;  not  the  less  poisonous  and  peril- 
ous, because  refined  from  Romish  gross- 
ness,  and  administered  under  the  name  of 
gospel. 

Christ  asks  no  preparation  of  any  kind 
whatsoever, — legal  or  evangelical,  outward 
or  inward, — in  the  coming  sinner.     And  he 


166  INSENSIBILITY. 

that  will  not  come  as  he  is  shall  never  be 
received  at  all.  It  is  not  "  exercised  souls/' 
nor  "  penitent  believers,"  nor  well-humbled 
"seekers,"  nor  earnest  "users  of  the  means," 
nor  any  of  the  better  class  of  Adam's  sons 
and  daughters  ; — but  sinners,  that  Christ 
welcomes.  "  He  came  not  to  call  the 
righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance," 
(Luke  v.  32).  "  This  man  receiveth  sin- 
ners"  (Luke  xv.  2). 

Spurious  repentance,  the  produce  and 
expression  of  unbelief  and  self-righteousness, 
may  be  found  previous  to  faith  ; — -just  as 
all  manner  of  evils  abound  in  the  soul  be- 
fore it  believes.  But  when  faith  comes,  it 
comes  not  as  the  result  of  this  self-wrought 
repentance, — but  in  spite  of  it ;  and  this  so- 
called  repentance  will  be  afterwards  regarded 
by  the  believing  soul  as  one  of  those  self- 
righteous  efforts,  whose  only  tendency 
was  to  keep  the  sinner  from  the  Saviour. 
They  who  call  on  "  penitent  sinners  "  to 
believe,  mistake  both  repentance  and  faith; 


INSENSIBILITY.  167 

and  that  which  they  teach  is  no  glad  tid- 
ings to  the  sinner.  To  the  better  class  of 
sinners  (if  such  there  be),  who  have  by 
laborious  efforts  got  themselves  sufficiently 
humbled,  it  may  be  glad  tidings ;  but  not 
to  those  who  are  "  without  strength,"  the 
lost,  the  ungodly,  the  hard-hearted,  the  in- 
sensible, the  lame,  the  blind,  the  halt,  the 
maimed.  "  It  is  not  sound  doctrine,"  says 
Dr  Colquhoun,  "  to  teach  that  Christ  will 
receive  none  but  the  true  penitent,  or  that 
none  else  is  warranted  to  come  by  faith  to 
him  for  salvation.  The  evil  of  that  doctrine 
is  that  it  sets  needy  sinners  on  spinning 
repentance,  as  it  were,  out  of  their  own 
bowels,  and  on  bringing  it  with  them  to 
Christ,  instead  of  coming  to  him  by  faith 
to  receive  it  from  him.  If  none  be  invited 
but  the  true  penitent,  then  impenitent  sin- 
ners are  not  bound  to  come  to  Christ ;  and 
cannot  be  blamed  for  not  coming."* 

*  View  of  Evangelical  Repentance,  p.  27,  28. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


JESUS  ONLY. 

IftJ.  zii.  1-4. 

1  Cor.  i.  30. 

Col.  iii.  1-11 

...  liii.  2,  3. 

Gal.  ii.  20. 

EeT.  iii.  17-20. 

Matt.  xvii.  8. 

Eph.  iii.  16-19. 

...    v.  9,13. 

John  i.  36. 

Phil.  iii.  3. 

...    xxi.  6. 

You  say,  "  I  am  ,not  satisfied  with  the  mo- 
tives that  have  led  me  to  seek  Christ ; 
they  are  selfish."  That  is  very  likely.  The 
feelings  of  a  newly  awakened  sinner  are 
not  disinterested,  neither  can  they  be  so. 

You  have  gone  in  quest  of  salvation  from 
a  sense  of  danger,  or  fear  of  the  wrath  to 
come,  or  a  desire  to  obtain  the  inheritance 
of  glory.  These  are  some  of  the  motives 
by  which  you  are  actuated. 

How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?     God  made 


JESUS  ONLY.  169 

you  with  these  fears  and  hopes ;  and  he 
appeals  to  them  in  his  word.  When  he  says,, 
"  Turn  ye,  turn  ye,  for  why  will  ye  die  T* 
he  is  appealing  to  your  fears.  When  he^ 
sets  eternal  life  before  you,  and  the  joys  of 
an  endless  kingdom,  he  is  appealing  to 
your  hopes.  And  when  he  presents  these- 
motives,  he  expects  you  to  be  moved  by 
them.  To  act  upon  such  motives,  then,, 
cannot  be  wrong.  Nay,  not  to  act  upon  them,, 
would  be  to  harden  yourself  against  God's- 
most  solemn  appeals.  "  Knowing  the  terror 
of  the  Lord,  we  persuade  men"  (2  Cor.  v.  11), 
says  Paul.  It  cannot  be  wrong  to  be  influ- 
enced by  this  terror.  "  The  remnant  were' 
affrighted,  and  gave  glory  to  the  God  of 
heaven,"  (Rev.  xi.  13).  This  surely  was  not 
wrong.  The  whole  Bible  is  full  of  suck 
motives,  addressed  to  our  hopes  and  fears. 

When  was  it  otherwise  ?  Among  all  the 
millions  who  have  found  life  in  Christ,  who* 
began  in  any  other  way,  or  from  any  higher 
motive  ?     Was  it  not  thus  that  the  jailor 


170  JESUS  ONLY. 

began  when  the  earthquake  shook  his  soul, 
and  called  up  before  his  conscience  the 
everlasting  woe  %  Was  it  not  a  sense  of 
danger  and  a  dread  of  wrath  that  made  him 
ask,  "  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  f  And 
did  the  apostle  rebuke  him  for  this  ?  Did 
he  refuse  to  answer  his  anxious  question, 
because  his.  motive  was  so  selfish?  No. 
He  answered  at  once,  "  Believe  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  THOU  shalt  be  saved." 

There  is  nothing  wrong  in  these  motives. 
When  my  body  is  pained,  it  is  not  wrong 
to  wish  for  relief.  When  overtaken  by  sick- 
ness, it  is  not  wrong  to  send  for  a  physi- 
cian. You  may  call  this  selfishness,  but  it 
is  a  right  and  lawful  selfishness,  which  He 
who  made  us  what  we  are,  and  who  gave 
us  these  instincts,  expects  us  to  act  upon  ; 
and  in  acting  on  which,  we  may  count  upon 
his  blessing,  not  his  rebuke.  It  is  not 
wrong  to  dread  hell,  to  desire  heaven,  to 
fi.ee  from  torments,  to  long  for  blessed- 
ness, to  shun  condemnation,  and  to  desire 


JESUS  ONLY.  171 

pardon.*  Let  not  Satan  then  ensnare  you 
with  such  foolish  thoughts,  the  tendency  of 
which  is  to  quench  every  serious  desire, 
under  the  pretext  of  its  not  being  dis- 
interested and  perfect. 

You  think  that,  were  you  seeking  salva- 
tion from  a  regard  to  the  glory  of  God, 
you  would  be  satisfied.  But  what  does 
that  mean,  but  that,  at  the  very  first,  even 
before  you  have  come  to  Christ,  you  are  to 

*  It  is  not  wrong  to  love  God  for  what  he  has  done 
for  us.  Not  to  do  so,  would  be  the  very  baseness  of  in- 
gratitude. To  love  Gocl  purely  for  what  he  is,  is  by  some 
spoken  of  as  the  highest  hind  of  love,  into  which  enters 
no  element  of  self.  It  is  not  so.  For  in  that  case, 
you  are  actuated  by  the  pleasure  of  loving  ;  and  this 
pleasure  of  loving  an  infinitely  loveable  and  glorious 
Being,  of  necessity  introduces  self.  Besides,  to  say  that 
we  are  to  love  God  solely  for  what  he  is,  and  not  for 
what  he  has  done,  is  to  make  ingratitude  an  essential 
element  of  pure  love.  David's  love  shewed  itself  in  "not 
forgetting  God's  benefits,"  (Psa.  ciii.  2).  But  this 
"  pure  love"  soars  beyond  David's,  and  finds  it  a  duty 
to  be  unthankful,  lest  perchance  some  selfish  element 
mingle  itself  with  its  superhuman,  superangelic  purity. 


172 


JESUS  ONLY". 


be  actuated  by  the  highest  of  all  motives? 
He  who  has  learned  to  seek  God's  glory  is 
one  who  has  already  come  to  Christ ;  and 
he  who  has  learned  to  do  this  entirely,  is  no 
sinner  at  all ;  and,  therefore,  does  not  need 
Christ.  To  seek  God's  glory  is  a  high  at- 
tainment of  faith ;  yet  you  want  to  be  con- 
scious of  possessing  it  before  you  have  got 
faith, — nay,  in  order  to  your  getting  it ! 
Is  it  possible  that  you  can  be  deluding 
yourself  with  the  idea  that  if  you  could 
only  secure  this  qualification,  you'  might 
confidently  expect  God  to  give  you  faith. 
This  would  be  substituting  your  own  zeal 
for  his  glory,  in  the  room  of  the  cross  of 
Christ. 

Do  not  keep  back  from  Christ  under  the 
idea  that  you  must  come  to  him  in  a  dis- 
interested frame,  and  from  an  unselfish 
motive.  If  you  were  right  in  this  thing, 
who  could  be  saved  ?  You  are  to  come  as 
you  are  ;  with  all  your  bad  motives,  what- 
ever -these  may  be.      Take  all  your  bad 


JESUS  ONLY. 


173 


motives  ;  add  them  to  the  number  of  your 
sins,  and  bring  them  all  to  the  altar  where 
the  great  sacrifice  is  lying.  Go  to  the 
mercy-seat.  Tell  the  High  Priest  there, 
not  what  you  desire  to  be,  nor  what  you 
ought  to  be,  but  what  you  are.  Tell  him 
the  honest  truth  as  to  your  condition  at 
this  moment.  Confess  the  impurity  of 
your  motives  ;  all  the  evil  that  you  feel  or 
that  you  don't  feel;  your  hard-heartedness, 
your  blindness,  your  unteachableness.  Con- 
fess everything  without  reserve.  He  wants 
you  to  come  to  Him  exactly  as  you  are, 
and  not  to  cherish  the  vain  thought  that, 
by  a  little  waiting,  or  working,  or  praying, 
you  can  make  yourself  fit,  or  persuade  Him 
to  make  you  fit.* 

*  "  How  reasonable,"  writes  one,  "  that  we  should 
just  do  that  one  small  act  which  God  requires  of  us, 
go  and  tell  him  the  truth.  I  used  to  go  and  say,  Lord, 
I  am  a  sinner,  do  have  mercy  on  me  ;  but  as  I  did  not 
feel  all  this,  I  began  to  see  that  I  was  taking  a  lie  in 
my  hand,  trying  to  persuade  the  Almighty  that  I  fell; 


174  JESUS  ONLY. 

"But  I  am  not  satisfied  with  my  faith? 
you  say.  No,  truly.  Nor  are  yeu  ever 
likely  to  be  so.  At  least  I  should  hope 
not.  If  you  wait  for  this  before  you  take 
peace,  you  will  wait  till  life  is  done.  It 
would  appear  that  you  want  to  believe  in 
your  own  faith,  in  order  to  obtain  rest  to 
your  soul.  The  Bible  does  not  say,  "  Be- 
ing satisfied  about  our  faith,  we  have  peace 
with  God,"  but  "  Being  justified  by  faith,  we 
have  peace  with  God  ;"  and  between  these 
two  things  there  is  a  wonderful  difference. 
Satisfaction  with  Jesus  and  his  work,  not 

things  which  I  did  not  feel.  These  prayers  and  con- 
fessions brought  me  no  comfort,  no  answer ;  so  at  last 
I  changed  my  tone,  and  began  to  tell  the  truth — 
Lord,  I  do  not  feel  myself  a  sinner ;  I  do  not  feel  that 
I  need  mercy.  Now,  all  was  right ;  the  sweetest  re- 
ception, the  most  loving  encouragements,  the  most 
refreshing  answers,  this  confession  of  the  truth 
brought  down  from  heaven.  I  did  not  get  anything 
by  declaring  myself  a  sinner,  for  I  felt  it  not ;  but  I 
obtained  everything  by  confessing  that  I  did  not  sea 
myself  one." 


JESUS  ONLY.  175 

satisfaction  with  your  own  faith,  is  what 
God  expects  of  you.  "  I  am  satisfied  with 
Christ/'  you  say.  Are  you  ?  Then  you 
are  a  believing  man  ;  and  what  more  do 
you  wish  ?  Is  not  satisfaction  with  Christ 
enough  for  you  or  for  any  sinner  ?  Nay, 
and  is  not  this  the  truest  kind  of  faith  ? 
To  be  satisfied  with  Christ,  is  faith  in 
Christ.  To  be  satisfied  with  his  blood,  is 
faith  in  his  blood.  Do  not  bewilder  your- 
self, or  allow  others  to  bewilder  you.  Be 
assured  that  the  very  essence  of  faith  is 
being  satisfied  with  Christ  and  his  sin- 
bearing  work  ;  ask  no  more  questions  about 
faith  ,but  go  upon  your  way  rejoicing,  as 
one  to  whom  Christ  is  all. 

Remember  the  Baptist's  words,  "He  must 
increase,  but  I  must  decrease,"  (John  iii. 
30).  Self,  in  every  form,  must  decrease, 
and  Christ  must  increase.  To  become  satis- 
fied with  your  faith,  would  look  as  if  you 
were  dissatisfied  with  Christ.  The  begin- 
ning, the  middle,  and  end  of  your  course, 


176  JESUS  ONLY. 

must  be  dissatisfaction  with  self  and  satisfac- 
tion with  Christ.  Be  content  to  be  satisfied 
with  faith's  glorious  object,  and  let  faith  it- 
self be  forgotten.  Faith,  however  perfect, 
has  nothing  to  give  you.  It  points  you  to 
Jesus.  It  bids  you  look  away  from  itself 
to  Him.  It  says,  "  Christ  is  all."  It  bids 
you  look  to  him  who  says,  "  Look  unto  me  ;" 
who  says,  "  Fear  not,  I  am  the  first  and  the 
last ;  I  am  he  that  liveth  and  was  dead, 
and  behold  I  am  alive  for  evermore,"  (Rev. 
i.  17,  18). 

If  you  were  required  to  believe  in  your 
own  faith,  to  ascertain  its  quality,  and  to 
know  that  you  are  born  again,  before  you 
were  warranted  to  trust  in  Jesus,  or  to  have 
peace,  you  would  certainly  need  to  be  satis- 
fied with  your  own  faith.  But  you  are  not 
required  to  make  good  any  personal  claim, 
save  that  you  are  a  sinner ; — not  that  you 
feel  yourself  to  be  one  (that  would  open  up 
an  endless  metaphysical  inquiry  into  your 
own  feelings) ; — but  simply  that  you  are 


JESUS  ONLY.  177 

one.  This  you  know  upon  God's  authority, 
and  learn  from  his  word  ;  and  on  this  you 
act,  whether  you  feel  your  sinfulness  or 
not.  The  gospel  needs  no  ascertaining  of 
anything  about  ourselves,  save  what  is 
written  in  the  Bible,  and  what  is  common 
to  all  Adam's  children, — that  we  need  a 
Saviour.  It  is  upon  this  need  that  faith 
acts  ;  it  is  this  need  that  faith  presents  at 
the  throne  of  grace.  The  question,  then,  is 
not,  Am  I  satisfied  with  my  faith  ?  but,  Am 
I  a  needy  sinner,  and  am  I  satisfied  that 
in  Christ  there  is  all  I  need  ? 

You  say,  "  I  am  not  satisfied  with  my 
love."  What !  Did  you  expect  to  be  so  ? 
Is  it  your  love  to  Christ,  or  his  love  to  you, 
that  is  to  bring  you  peace  ?  God's  free 
love  to  sinners,  as  such,  is  our  resting-place. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  love  in  God, — his 
love  of  compassion  to  the  unbelieving  sin- 
ner, and  his  love  of  delight  and  com- 
placency to  his  believing  children.  A 
father's  love  to  a  prodigal  child  is  quite  as 


ITS  JESUd  ONJLE. 

sincere  as  his  love  to  his  obedient,  loving 
child  at  home ;  though  it  be  of  a  different 
kind.  God  cannot  love  you  as  a  believer 
till  you  are  such.  But  he  loves  you  as  a 
poor  sinner.  And  it  is  on  this  love  of  his 
to  the  unloving  and  unloveable  that  affords 
the  sinner  his  first  resting-place.  This  free 
love  of  God  satisfies  and  attracts  him. 
"  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God, 
but  that  he  loved  us."  "  We  love  him  be- 
cause he  first  loved  us."  "  God  so  loved 
the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten 
Son." 

"  I  am  not  satisfied  with  my  repentance," 
you  say.  It  is  well.  What  should  you 
have  thought  of  yourself  had  you  been  so  ? 
What  pride  and  self-righteousness  would  it 
indicate,  were  you  saying,  "  I  am  satisfied 
with  my  repentance, — it  is  of  the  proper 
quality  and  amount."  If  satisfied  with  it, 
what  would  you  do  with  it  %  Would  you 
ground  your  peace  upon  it  ?  Would  you 
pacify  your  conscience  with  it       Would 


JESUS  ONLY,  179 

you  go  with  it  instead  of  the  blood  to  a 
holy  God  ?  If  not,  what  do  you  mean  by 
the  desire  to  be  satisfied  with  your  re- 
pentance before  having  peace  with  God  ? 

In  short,  you  are  not  satisfied  with  any 
of  your  religious  feelings  ;  and  it  is  well 
that  you  are  not  so  ;  for,  if  you  were,  you 
must  have  a  very  high  idea  of  yourself, 
and  a  very  low  idea  of  what  both  law  and 
gospel  expect  of  you.  You  are,  I  doubt 
not,  right  in  not  being  satisfied  with  the 
state  of  your  feelings  ;  but  what  has  this 
to  do  with  the  great  duty  of  immediately 
believing  on  the  Son  of  God  %  If  the  gos- 
pel is  nothing  to  you  till  you  have  got 
your  feelings  all  set  right,  it  «is  no  gospel 
for  the  sinner  at  all.  But  this  is  its  special 
fitness  and  glory,  that  it  takes  you  up  at 
the  very  point  where  you  are  at  this  mo- 
ment, and  brings  you  glad  tidings  in  spite 
of  your  feelings  being  altogether  wrong. 

All  these  difficulties  of  yours  have  their 
root  in  the  self-esteem  of  our  natures,  which 


180  JESUS  ONLY. 

makes  us  refuse  to  be  counted  altogether 
sinners,  and  which  shrinks  from  going  to 
God,  save  with  some  personal  recommenda- 
tion to  make  acceptance  likely.  Utter 
want  of  goodness  is  what  we  are  slow  to 
acknowledge.  Give  up  these  attempts  to 
be  satisfied  with  yourself  in  anything,  great 
or  small,  faith,  feeling,  or  action.  The 
Holy  Spirit's  work  in  convincing  you  of 
sin,  is  to  make  you  dissatisfied  with  your- 
self;  and  will  you  pursue  a  course  which 
can  only  grieve  him  away?  God  can  never 
be  satisfied  with  you  on  account  of  any 
goodness  about  you  ;  and  why  should  you 
attempt  to  be  satisfied  with  anything  which 
will  not  satisfy  him  ?  There  is  but  one 
thing  with  which  he  is  entirely  satisfied, — 
the  person  and  work  of  his  only-begotten 
Son.  It  is  with  Him  that  he  wants  you  to 
be  satisfied,  not  with  yourself.  How  much 
better  would  it  be  to  take  God's  way  at 
once,  and  be  satisfied  with  Christ  ?  Then 
would  pardon  and  peace  be  given  without 


JESUS  ONLY.  181 

delay.  Then  would  the  favour  of  God  rest 
upon  you.  For  God  has  declared,  that 
whoever  is  satisfied  with  Christ  shall  find 
favour  with  him.  His  desire  is  that  you 
should  come  to  be  at  one  with  him  in  this 
great  thing.  He  asks  nothing  of  you,  save 
this.  But  with  nothing  else  than  this  will 
he  be  content,  nor  will  he  receive  you  on 
any  other  footing,  save  that  of  one  who  has 
come  to  be  satisfied  with  Christ,  and  with 
what  Christ  has  done. 

Surely  all  this  is  simple  enough.  Does 
it  exactly  meet  your  case.  Satisfaction  with 
yourself,  even  could  you  get  it,  would  do 
nothing  for  you.  Satisfaction  with  Christ 
would  do  everything  ;  for  Christ  is  ALL. 
"  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased."  Be  pleased  with  him,  in  whom 
the  Father  is  pleased,  and  all  is  well. 

I  suspect  that  some  of  those  difficulties 
of  yours  arise  from  the  secret  idea  that  the 
gospel  is  just  a  sort  of  modified  law,  by 
keeping  which  you  are  to  be  saved.     You 


182  JESUS  ONLY. 

know  that  the  old  law  is  far  above  }rour 
reach,  and  that  it  condemns,  but  cannot 
save  you.  But  you  think,  perhaps,  that 
Christ  came  to  make  the  law  easier,  to 
lower  its  demands,  to  make  it  (as  some  say) 
an  evangelical  law,  with  milder  terms,  suited 
to  the  sinner's  weakness.  That  this  is 
blasphemy,  a  moment's  thought  will  shew 
you.  For  it  means  that  the  former  law 
was  too  strict ;  that  is,  it  was  not  "  holy, 
and  just,  and  good."  It  denies  also  Christ's 
words,  that  he  "  came  not  to  destroy  but  to 
fulfil  the  law."  God  has  but  one  law,  and 
it  is  perfect ;  its  substance  is,  love  to  God 
and  man.  A  milder  law  must  mean  an  im- 
perfect one ;  a  law  that  makes  God's  one 
law  unnecessary ;  a  law  that  gives  counte- 
nance to  sin.  Will  obedience  to  an  imper- 
fect law  save  a  breaker  of  the  perfect  law  ? 
But  faith  does  not  make  void  the  law  ;  it 
establishes  it,  (Bom.  iii.  31). 

It  is  by  a  perfect  law  that  we  are  saved ; 
else  it  would  be  an  unholy  salvation.     It  is 


JESCS  ONLY.  183 

by  a  perfect  law,  fulfilled  in  every  "jot  and 
tittle/'  that  we  are  saved  ;  else  it  would  be 
an  unrighteous  salvation.  The  Son  of  God 
has  kept  the  law  for  us  ;  he  has  magnified 
it  and  made  it  honourable  ;  and  thus  we 
have  a  holy  and  righteous  salvation.  Though 
above  law  in  himself,  he  was  made  "under 
the  law"  (Gal.  iv.  4)  for  us  ;  and  by  the 
vicarious  law-keeping  of  his  spotless  life, 
as  well  as  by  endurance  unto  death  of  that 
law's  awful  penalties,  we  are  redeemed  from 
the  curse  of  the  law.  "  Christ  is  the  end 
(the  fulfilling  and  exhausting)  of  the  law, 
for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  be- 
lieveth,"  (Rom.  x.  4).  For  Christ  is  not  a 
helper,  but  a  Saviour.  He  has  not  come 
to  enable  us  to  save  ourselves,  by  keeping  a 
mitigated  law ;  but  to  keep  the  unmitigated 
law  in  our  room,  that  the  law  might  have 
no  claim  for  penalty,  upon  any  sinner  who 
will  only  consent  to  be  indebted  to  the 
law-keeping  and  law-enduring  of  the  divine 
Surety. 


184  JESUS  ONLY. 

Others  of  your  difficulties  spring  from  con- 
founding the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  us  with 
the  work  of  Christ  for  us.  These  two  must  be 
kept  distinct ;  for  the  intermingling  of  them 
is  the  subversion  of  both.  Beware  of  over- 
looking either  ;  beware  of  keeping  them  at 
a  distance  from  each  other.  Though  quite 
distinct,  they  go  hand  in  hand,  insejDarably 
linked  together,  yet  each  having  its  own 
place  and  its  own  office.  Your  medicine 
and  your  physician  are  not  the  same,  yet 
they  go  togeth  er.  Christ  is  your  medicine, 
the  Spirit  is  your  physician.  Do  not  take 
the  two  works  as  if  they  were  one  com- 
pounded work  ;  nor  try  to  build  your  peace 
upon  some  mystic  gospel  which  is  made  up 
of  a  strange  mixture  of  the  two.  Eealise 
both,  tus  outward  and  the  inward  ;  the 
objective  and  the  subjective  ;  Christ  for  us, 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  us. 

As  at  the  first,  so  to  the  last,  must  this 
distinctiveness  be  observed,  lest,  having 
found  peace  in  believing,  you  lose  it  by  not 


JESUS  ONLY.  185 

holding  the  beginning  of  your  confidence 
stedfast  unto  the  end.  "  "When  I  begin  to 
doubt,"  writes  one,  "  I  quiet  my  doubts  by 
going  back  to  the  place  where  I  got  them 
first  quieted ;  I  go  and  get  peace  again 
where  I  got  it  at  the  beginning;  I  do  not  sit 
down  gloomily  to  muse  over  my  own  faith 
or  unbelief,  but  over  the  finished  work  of 
Immanuel ;  I  dont  try  to  reckon  up  my  ex- 
periences, to  prove  that  I  once  was  a  be- 
liever, but  I  believe  again  as  I  did  before  ; 
I  dont  examine  the  evidence  of  the  Spirit's 
work  in  me,  but  I  think  of  the  sure  evi- 
dences which  I  have  of  Christ's  work  for 
me,  in  his  death,  and  burial,  and  resurrec- 
tion. This  is  the  restoration  of  my  peace. 
I  had  begun  to  look  at  other  objects  ;  I  am 
now  recalled  from  my  wanderings  to  look 
at  Jesus  only."* 

*  "Thus  the  poor  and  sorrowful  soul,  instead  of 
being  at  once  led  to  the  source  of  all  good,  is  taught 
to  make  much  of  the  conflict  of  truth  and  falsehood 
within  it  as  the  pledge  of  God's  love  ;  and  to  picture 

Q2 


186 


JESUS  ONLY. 


Some  of  your  difficulties  seem  to  arise 
from  a  mixing  up  of  the  natural  and  the 
supernatural.  Now  the  marvellous  thing 
in  conversion  is,  tha.t  while  all  is  super- 
natural (being  the  entire  work  of  the 
Holy  Ghost),  all  is  also  natural.  You 
are,  perhaps  unconsciously,  expecting  some 
miraculous  illapse  of  heavenly  power  and 
brightness  into  your  soul ;  something  apart 
from  divine  truth,  and  from  the  working  of 

to  itself  faitli  as  a  sort  of  passive  quality,  which  sits 
amid  the  ruins  of  human  nature,  and  keeps  up  what 
may  he  called  a  silent  protest,  or  indulges  a  pensive 
meditation  over  its  misery.  And,  indeed,  faith  thus 
regarded,  cannot  do  more,  for  while  it  acts,  not  to 
lead  the  soul  to  Christ,  but  to  detain  it  from  him,  how 
can  the  soul  hut  remain  a  prisoner  ?  True  faith  is 
what  may  he  called  colourless,  like  air  or  water  ;  it  is 
hut  the  medium  through  which  the  soul  sees  Christ, 
and  the  soul  as  little  rests  on  it  and  contemplates  it, 
as  the  eye  can  see  the  air.  "When  men,  then,  are  bent 
on  holding  it,  as  it  were,  in  their  hands,  curiously  in- 
specting, analysing,  and  so  aiming  at  it,  they  are 
obliged  to  col  >ur  and  thicken  it,  that  it  may  be  seen 
and  touched.     That  i^  they  substitute  for  it,  some- 


JESUS  ONLY.  187 

man's  powers  of  mind.  You  have  been  ex- 
pecting fait h  to  descend,  like  an  angel  from 
heaven,  into  your  soul,  and  hope  to  be 
lighted  up  lik'3  a  new  star  in  your  firma- 
ment. It  is  not  so.  Whilst  the  Spirit's 
work  is  beyond  nature,  it  is  not  against 
nature.  He  displaces  no  faculty ;  he  dis- 
turbs no  mental  process  ;  he  does  violence 
to  no  part  of  our  moral  framework ;  he 
creates  no  new  organ  of  thought  or  feeling. 

thing  or  other,  a  feeling,  notion,  sentiment,  conviction, 
an  act  of  reason,  which  they  may  hang  over  and  doat  upon. 
They  rather  aim  at  experiences  within  them,  than  at 
Him  who  is  without  them.  Now,  men  who  are  acted 
on  by  news,  good  and  bad,  or  sights  beautiful  or  fear- 
ful, admire,  rejoice,  weep,  or  are  pained,  hut  are  moved 
spontaneously,  not  with  a  direct  consciousness  of  their 
emotion.  So  is  it  with  faith  and  other  Christian 
graces.  Bystanders  see  our  minds,  hut  our  minds,  if 
healthy,  see  but  the  objects  which  possess  them.  .As 
God's  grace  elicits  our  faith,  so  his  holiness  stirs  our 
fear,  and  his  glory  kindles  our  love.  Others  say  often, 
Here  is  faith,  and  there  is  conscientiousness,  and  there 
is  love  ;  but  wo  can  only  say,  This  is  God's  grace,  and 
that  is  his  holi  less  and  that  is  his  glory.5' 


188  JESUS  ONLY. 

His  office  is  to  "  set  all  to  rights  "  within 
you  ;  so  that  you  never  feel  so  calm,  so 
true,  so  real,  so  perfectly  natural,  so  much 
yourself, — as  when  He  has  taken  possession 
of  you  in  every  part ;  and  filled  your  whole 
man  with  his  heavenly  joy.  Never  do  you 
feel  so  perfectly  free, — less  constrained 
and  less  mechanical, — in  every  faculty, 
as  when  he  has  "brought  every  thought 
into  captivity  to  the  obedience  of  Christ." 
The  heavenly  life  imparted  is  liberty, 
and  truth,  and  peace  ;  it  is  the  removal 
of  bondage,  and  darkness,  and  pain.  So  far 
from  being  a  mechanical  constraint,  as  some 
would  represent,  it  is  the  removal  of  the  iron 
chain  with  which  guilt  had  bound  the  sinner. 
It  acts  like  an  army  of  liberation  to  a  down- 
trodden country  ;  like  the  warm  breath  of 
sj)ring  to  the  frost-fettered  tree.  For  the 
entrance  of  true  life,  or  living  truth,  into 
man's  soul,  must  be  liberty,  not  bondage. 
"  The  truth  shall  make  you  free." 

Other  difficulties  arise  out  of  confused 


JESUS  ONLY.  189 

ideas  as  to  the  proper  order  of  truth. 
Misplaced  truth  is  sometimes  more  injuri- 
ous than  actual  error.  In  our  statements 
of  doctrine,  we  are  to  have  regard  to  God's 
order  of  things,  as  well  as  to  the  things 
themselves.  If  you  would  solve  the  sim- 
plest question  in  arithmetic,  the  figures 
must  not  only  be  the  proper  ones,  but  they 
must  be  placed  in  proper  order.  So  is  it 
with  the  doctrines  of  the  word  of  God. 
Some  seem  to  fling  them  about  in  ill-as- 
sorted couples,  or  confused  bundles,  as  if  it 
mattered  little  to  the  hearer  or  reader  what 
order  was  preserved,  provided  only  certain 
truths  were  distinctly  announced.  Much 
trouble  to  the  anxious  spirit  has  arisen  from 
this  reckless  confusion.  A  gospel  in  which 
election  is  placed  first  is  not  the  gospel  of 
the  apostles ;  though  certainly  a  gospel 
in  which  election  is  denied  is  still  less 
the  apostolic  gospel.  The  true  gospel  is 
neither  that  Christ  died  for  the  elect,  nor 
that  he  ditd  for  the  whole  world  ;  for  the 


190  JESUS  ONLY. 

excellency  of  the  gospel  does  not  lie  in  it? 
announcement  of  the  numbers  to  be  saved, 
but  in  its  proclamation  of  the  great  pro- 
pitiation itself.  Some  who  are  supposed  to 
be  holding  fast  "  the  form  of  sound  words  " 
present  us  with  a  mere  dislocation  of  the  gos- 
pel, the  different  truths  being  so  jumbled, 
that  while  they  may  be  all  there,  they  pro- 
duce no  result.  They  rather  so  neutralise 
each  other  as  to  prevent  the  sinner  extract- 
ing from  them  the  good  news  which,  wnen 
rightly  put  together,  they  most  assuredly 
contain.  If  the  verses  or  chapters  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  were  transposed  or 
jumbled  together,  would  it  be  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  though  every  word  were 
there  ?  So,  if,  in  teaching  the  gospel,  we 
do  not  begin  at  the  beginning  ;  if,  for  in- 
stance, we  tell  the  sinner  what  he  has  to 
do,  before  we  tell  him  what  God  has  done  ; 
if  we  tell  him  to  examine  his  own  heart 
before  we  tell  him  to  study  the  cross  of 
Christ;  we   take  out  the  whole  gladness 


JESUS  ONLY.  191 

from  the  glad  tidings,  and  preach  "  another 
gospel." 

Do  we  not  often,  too,  read  the  Bible  as 
if  it  were  a  book  of  law,  and  not  the  re- 
velation of  grace  %  In  so  doing,  we  draw 
a  cloud  over  it,  and  read  it  as  a  volume 
written  by  a  hard  master.  So  that  a  harsh 
tone  is  imparted  in  its  words,  and  the  legal 
element  is  made  to  obscure  the  evamgeli* 
cat.  We  are  slow  to  read  it  as  the  expan- 
sion of  the  first  gracious  promise  to  man  ;  as 
a  revelation  of  the  love  of  the  Father,  Son 
and  Holy  Ghost ;  as  the  book  of  grace, 
specially  written  for  us  by  the  Spirit  of 
grace.  The  law  is  in  it,  yet  the  Bible  is 
not  law,  but  gospel.  As  Mount  Sinai  rears 
its  head,  an  isolated  mass  of  hard,  red 
granite,  amid  a  thousand  desert  mountains 
of  softer  and  less  stern  material,  so  does 
the  law  stand  in  the  Bible  ; — a  necessary 
part  of  it, — but  not  the  characteristic  of  it ; 
"  added  because  of  transgressions  till  the 
»eed  should  come,"  (Gal.  iii.  19).     Yet  have 


192  JESUS  ONLY. 

not  our  suspicious  hearts  darkened  this 
book  of  light  ?  Do  we  not  often  read  it  as 
the  proclamation  of  a  command  to  do,  in- 
stead of  a  declaration  of  what  the  love  of 
God  has  done  ? 

Oh,  strange  !  "We  believe  in  Satan's  will- 
ingness to  tempt  and  to  injure  ;  but  not  in 
God's  willingness  to  deliver  and  to  save  ! 
Nay  more,  we  yield  to  our  great  enemy 
when  he  seduces  into  sin,  and  leads  away 
from  Christ  and  heaven ;  but  we  will  not 
yield  to  our  truest  friend,  when  he  draws 
us  with  the  cords  of  a  man,  and  with  bands 
of  love  !  We  will  not  give  God  the  credit 
for  speaking  truly  when  he  speaks  in  ten- 
der mercy,  and  utters  over  the  sinner  the 
yearnings  of  his  unfathomable  pity.  We 
listen,  as  if  his  words  were  hollow ;  as  if  he 
did  not  mean  what  he  says  ;  as  if  his  mes- 
sages of  grace,  instead  of  being  the  most 
thoroughly  sincere  that  ever  fell  on  human 
ears,  were  mere  words  of  course. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  whole  Bible  to 


JESUS  ONLY.  193 

repel  the  sinner,  and  yet  the  sinner  will  not 
come  !  There  is  everything  to  draw  and  to 
win  ;  yet  the  sinner  stands  aloof !  Christ 
receiveth  sinners ;  yet  the  sinner  turns 
away  !  He  yearns  over  them,  weeps  over 
them,  as  over  Jerusalem ;  yet  the  sinner 
is  unmoved !  The  heavenly  compassion 
is  unavailing ;  the  infinite  long-suffering 
touches  not  the  stony  heart,  and  the  divine 
tears  are  thrown  away.  The  Son  of  God 
stretches  out  his  hands  all  the  day  long, 
but  the  outstretched  hands  are  disregarded. 
All,  all  seems  in  vain  to  arrest  the  heedless, 
and  to  win  back  the  wanderer. 

Oh  the  amount  of  divine  love  that  has 
been  expended  upon  this  sad  world; — that 
has  been  brought  to  bear  upon  the  needy 
sons  of  men  !  We  sometimes  almost  doubt 
whether  it  be  true  or  possible,  that  God 
should  lavish  such  a  love  on  such  a  world. 
But  the  cross  is  the  blessed  memorial  of 
the  love,  and  that  saying  stands  unchange- 
able; "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave 


194  JESUS  ONLY. 

his  only  begotten  Son."  Sometimes,  too, 
we  say,  What  is  the  use  of  throwing  away 
such  love  1  Is  not  the  earnestness  of  God 
disproportioned  to  the  littleness  of  its  ob- 
ject,— man?  It  would  be  so  were  this  life 
all ;  were  there  no  eternity,  no  heaven,  no 
hell,  no  endless  gladness,  and  no  everlasting 
woe.  But  with  such  a  destiny  as  man's  ; 
with  an  eternity  like  that  which  is  in  store 
for  him, — can  any  amount  of  earnestness 
be  too  great  ?  Can  love  or  pity  exceed 
their  bounds  ?  Can  the  joy  or  grief  over  a 
sinner  saved  or  lost  be  exaggerated  ? 

He,  whose  infinite  mind  knows  what 
heaven  is,  knows  what  its  loss  must  be  to 
an  immortal  being.  Can  He  be  too  much 
in  earnest  about  its  gain  1  He  whose  all- 
reaching  foresight  knows  what  hell  is,  in 
all  its  never-ending  anguish,  sees  afar  off, 
and  fathoms  the  horrors  of  the  lost  soul, 
its  weeping  and  wailing  and  gnashing  of 
teeth  for  ever  and  .for  ever ;  its  horrible 
sense   of  condemnation  and    immitigable 


JESUS  ONLY.  195 

woe ;  its  cutting  remorse,  its  too  late  re- 
pentance, its  hopeless  sighs,  its  bitter  me- 
mories of  earth's  sunny  hours  ;  with  all  the 
thousand  sadnesses  that  go  to  make  up  the 
sum  total  of  a  lost  eternity  !  Can  he  then 
pity  too  much  %  Can  he  yearn  too  ten- 
derly over  souls  that  are  madly  bent  on 
flinging  themselves  into  a  doom  like  this  \ 
Can  he  use  words  too  strong  or  too  affec- 
tionate, in  warning  them  against  such  a 
darkness,  and  such  a  devil,  and  such  a  hell  \ 
Can  he  put  forth  words  too  affectionate  in 
beseeching  them  to  make  sure  of  such  a 
heaven  as  his  ? 

In  the  minds  of  some,  the  idea  prevails, 
that  sin  quenches  pity  for  the  sinner,  in  the 
heart  of  God. 

It  is  not  so.  That  it  shall  do  so  here- 
after, and  that  God  will  cease  to  pity  the 
lost,  is  an  awful  truth.  The  lost  soul's 
eternity  will  be  an  unpitied  eternity  of 
woe. 

But,  meanwhile,  God's  hatred  of  the  sin  is 


196  JESUS  ONLY. 

not  hatred  of  the  sinner.  Nay,  the  great- 
ness of  his  sin  seems  rather  to  deepen  than 
to  lessen  the  divine  compassion.  At  least 
we  may  say  that  the  increasing  misery 
which  increasing  sin  entails,  calls  into  new 
intensity  the  paternal  pity  of  the  God  of 
the  spirits  of  all  flesh.  "  It  grieves  him  at 
his  heart,"  (Gen.  vi.  6).  The  farther  the 
prodigal  goes  into  the  far  country,  the  more 
do  the  yearnings  of  the  father's  heart  go 
out  after  him,  in  unfeigned  compassion  for 
the  wretched  wanderer,  in  his  famine,  and 
nakedness,  and  degradation,  and  hopeless 
grief. 

No ;  sin  does  not  quench  the  pitying  love 
of  God.  The  kindest  words  ever  spoken 
to  Israel  were  in  the  very  height  of  their 
apostasy  and  rebellion.  The  most  gracious 
invitation  ever  uttered  by  the  Lord  was  to 
Capernaum,  and  Bethsaida,  and  Chorazin, 
"  Come  unto  me."  The  most  loving  mes- 
sage ever  sent  to  a  Church  was  that  to 
Laodicea,  the  worst  of  all  the  seven,  "  Be- 


JESUS  ONLY.  197 

hold  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock."  It 
was  Jerusalem,  in  her  utmost  extremity  of 
guilt,  and  rebellion,  and  unbelief,  that  drew 
forth  the  tears  of  the  Son  of  God.  No  ;  sin 
does  not  extinguish  the  love  of  God  to  the 
sinner.  Many  waters  cannot  quench  it, 
nor  can  the  floods  drown  it.  From  first  to 
last,  God  pursues  the  sinner  as  he  flies  from 
him ;  pursues  him  not  in  hatred,  but  in 
love ;  pursues  him  not  to  destroy,  but  to 
pardon  and  to  save. 

God  is  not  a  man  that  he  should  lie. 
He  means  what  he  says,  when  he  speaks  in 
pity,  as  truly  as  when  he  speaks  in  wrath. 
His  words  are  not  mere  random  expressions, 
such  as  man  often  uses  when  uttering  vague 
sentiment,  or  trying  to  produce  an  impres- 
sion by  exaggerated  representations  of  his 
feelings.  God's  words  are  all  true  and 
real.  You  cannot  exaggerate  the  genuine 
feeling  which  they  contain  ;  and  to  under- 
stand them  as  figures,  is  not  only  to  con- 
vert them  into  unrealities,  but  to  treat  them 


198 


JESUS  ONLY. 


as  falsehoods.  Let  sinners  take  God's  "words 
as  they  are  ;  the  genuine  expressions  of 
the  mind  of  that  infinitely  truthful  Being, 
who  never  uses  but  the  words  cf  "  truth 
and  soberness."  He  is  sovereign  ;  but  that 
sovereignty  is  not  at  war  with  grace  ;  nor 
does  it  lead  to  insincerity  of  speech,  as 
some  seem  to  think  it  does.  Whether  we 
can  reconcile  the  sovereignty  with  the  pity, 
it  matters  not.  Let  us  believe  them  both, 
because  both  are  revealed  in  the  Bible. 
Nor  let  us  ever  resort  to  an  explanation  of 
the  words  of  pity,  which  would  imply  that 
they  were  not  sincerely  spoken  ;  and  that 
if  a  sinner  took  them  too  literally  and  too 
simply,  he  would  be  sorely  disappointed ; — 
finding  at  last  them  mere  exaggerations, 
if  not  empty  air. 

Oh  let  us  learn  to  treat  God  as  not  merely 
the  wisest,  and  the  highest,  and  the  holiest, 
but  as  the  most  truthful  of  all  beings. 
Let  the  heedless  sinner  hear  his  truthful 
warnings,  and  tremble  ;  for  they  shall  all 


JESUS  ONLY.  199 

be  fulfilled.  Let  the  anxious  sinner  listen 
to  his  truthful  words  of  grace,  and  be  at 
peace.  "We  need  to  be  told  this.  For 
there  is  in  the  minds  of  many,  a  feeling  of 
sad  distrust  as  to  the  sincerity  of  the  divine 
utterances,  and  a  proneness  to  evade  their 
plain  and  honest  meaning.  Let  us  do 
justice,  not  merely  to  the  love,  but  to  the 
truthfulness,  of  God.  There  are  many  who 
need  to  be  reminded  of  this; — yes,  many, 
who  do  not  seem  to  be  at  all  aware  of 
their  propensity  to  doubt  even  the  simple 
truthfulness  of  the  God  of  truth. 

God  is  love.  Yes,  God  is  love.  Can 
such  a  God  be  suspected  of  insincerity  in 
the  declarations  of  his  long-suffering,  yearn- 
ing compassion  toward  the  most  rebellious 
and  impenitent  of  the  sons  of  men  ?  That 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  righteousness  ;  that 
there  is  such  a  place  as  hell ;  that  there  are 
such  beings  as  lost  angels  and  lost  men,  we 
know  to  be  awful  certainties.  But  however 
terrible  and  howeve&true  these  things  may 


200  JESUS  ONLY. 

be,  they  cannot  cast  the  slightest  doubt 
upon  the  sincerity  of  the  great  oath  which 
God  has  sworn  before  heaven  and  earth, 
that  he  has  "  no  pleasure  in  the-  death  of 
the  wicked  ;  but  that  the  wicked  turn  from 
his  way  and  live ;"  nor  in  the  least  blunt 
the  solemn  edge  of  his  gracious  entreaty, 
"Turn  ye;  tuen  ye,  for  why  will  yk 
die?" 


RARE  BOOK 
COLLECTION 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

LIBRARY 


U270.1 
Conf . 


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